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‘We were tortured by smugglers. Now the government is torturing us’

The UK’s first deportation flight to Rwanda leaves on Tuesday. Refugees and activists are trying to stop it

By Nandini Naira Archer
‘We were tortured by smugglers. Now the government is torturing us’
Protest against government plan to offshore refugees, London UK 2022. | ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
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Bahram* fled torture and persecution in Iran and arrived in the UK by boat last month. “I had to go through a dangerous route. I put my life in the hands of smugglers but I had no other choice,” he told openDemocracy.

But as soon as he touched British soil, the smuggler alerted the British police, who threw him into Brook House immigration detention centre. 

The Home Office served Bahram with a notice on 31 May saying he’d be removed to Rwanda. He’s one of those due to be on the first removal flight as part of Priti Patel’s controversial new scheme that seeks to have asylum claims processed in the East African country.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0