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- A mutiny on a BA flight helped foil the removal of a criminal to Jamaica
Another deportation of a foreign criminal has been thwarted after an airline passenger mutiny – and this time the ringleader was helped by a Left-wing human rights charity.
An exclusive investigation by The Mail on Sunday last week revealed how gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed was finally sent back to Somalia more than five years after his removal was scuppered by virtue-signalling holidaymakers on the same flight.
Now this newspaper can expose how a second passenger mutiny on board a British Airways flight at Gatwick earlier this month helped foil the removal of a convicted criminal to Jamaica.
Astonishingly, Hannah Gaffey, the leader of the latest revolt, boasted online about how she and others helped stop the deportation – and revealed how she was advised over the phone both before and after the mutiny by a caseworker at campaign group Detention Action.
Our revelation comes after Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy was plunged into chaos when judges threw out his Rwanda plan and shock figures showed net migration hit a record 745,000 last year.
Hannah Gaffey, the leader of the latest revolt, boasted online about how she and others helped stop the deportation
A second passenger mutiny on board a British Airways flight at Gatwick earlier this month helped foil the removal of a convicted criminal to Jamaica
It also throws a spotlight on Detention Action, which was part of a legal challenge against Government plans to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda. Until May, the charity was led by Bella Sankey, a former would-be Labour MP who is now Labour leader of Brighton Council.
Last night, former Home Secretary Priti Patel described the latest plane mutiny as ‘shameful’.
‘Anyone who deliberately stops the removal of a foreign national offender should face the courts for the taxpayers’ funds their actions are consuming, for the wasted legal and court time they are racking up and for effectively standing by dangerous criminals who are a threat to the British public,’ she said.
The latest deportation farce began at lunchtime on November 10 as passengers in Gatwick’s South Terminal began boarding a Boeing 777 British Airways flight to Kingston, Jamaica. Among their number was Cambridge University-educated Gaffey, 26, from Salford, Greater Manchester. Ms Gaffey, who works as an event coordinator in Norway, has previously campaigned online for asylum seekers to be allowed to work. In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Gaffey, 26, described how she became suspicious the flight was going to be used to deport a foreign national.
As she boarded, she phoned Detention Action – which operates a ‘confidential’ advice line – to explain what was happening. She then approached a flight attendant and a member of ground staff who told her that the person was being deported as he ‘had done something bad’ and that he was now being restrained by officials at the back of the aircraft.
The Home Office last night refused to reveal what crime the offender committed or how long he was jailed for. As she got to her seat, the man was heard shouting ‘get off me’, which prompted Ms Gaffey to tell other passengers he was being deported.
‘There were some that shared a feeling of injustice that this was happening and we were vocal about that,’ she wrote.
‘I felt hopeful at this point because I had allies. The BA staff were keen for us to sit down and stop talking about it. So, we stayed standing. The aircraft is not allowed to take off while people are standing. So we did that.’
Concerned that she would be ‘kicked off the flight’, Ms Gaffey eventually sat down but she continued to fire questions at the cabin crew about the deportation. ‘The head of cabin crew came to speak to me again and I asked if it was a good idea to have six people physically restraining one man on a nine-plus hour flight.’
By now the aircraft was taxiing towards the runway and, possibly emboldened by the protest, the criminal was ‘trying to put up more of a fight against the people restraining him’, Ms Gaffey said.
As the offender became increasingly violent, the captain abandoned his preparations for take-off and returned the aircraft to the terminal.
Ms Gaffey described feeling ‘elated’, adding: ‘The captain announced that we will be staying on the tarmac because there was disruption at the rear of the plane and people were not sitting in their seats. Most people groan, but I realise that he might be getting off the plane! I turn around and the staff are no longer restraining him and he is standing up and smiling.’
Gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed was finally sent back to Somalia more than five years after his removal was scuppered by virtue-signalling holidaymakers on the same flight
Ten minutes later, passengers erupted into cheers as the man was led off the aircraft, prompting him to say: ‘Thank you everyone.’
Meanwhile, Ms Gaffey telephoned Detention Action to inform the charity about the foiled deportation.
A caseworker quizzed her on whether anyone had filmed the incident before advising that if she found herself on another deportation flight she should ‘refuse to sit’, Ms Gaffey claimed.
She refused to comment further when the MoS last week approached her. In February 2020, Detention Action brought a legal challenge that prevented the Home Office from removing 25 criminals on a flight to Jamaica.
Last night, its director James Wilson said the charity ‘did not advise Ms Gaffey to stand up’, adding: ‘We didn’t advise anyone to break the law.’ Asked whether the charity ever advised passengers on how to disrupt a deportation flight in her time in charge, Cllr Sankey said: ‘No.’
British Airways said: ‘UK airlines are legally required to deport people when asked to do so by the Home Office.’