Stansted 15
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The Stansted 15 are a group of human rights activists who took action to stop a deportation flight leaving from
Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's third-busiest airport, Stan ...
, UK on 28 March 2017. The plane, a
Titan Airways Titan Airways Limited is a British charter airline based at London Stansted Airport. The carrier specialises in short-notice ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance) and wet lease operations, as well as ad-hoc passenger and cargo char ...
Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified ...
was chartered by the
UK Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...
to deport 60 migrants to
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
and
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
. The group were arrested, endured a ten week trial and later prosecuted in December 2018 under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 and convicted of terrorism-related charges. During February 2019, they received suspended sentences or community orders after the presiding judge (Judge Armstrong) decided not to imprison them stating he believed the group had been motivated by "genuine reasons". In January 2021, the convictions of the Stansted 15 were overturned on appeal.


The action

On the night of 28 March 2017, the group of nine women and six men cut a hole measuring one square metre in the perimeter fence of Stansted Airport. Four protesters then arranged themselves around the front landing gear of the aircraft and locked their arms together inside double-layered pipes filled with expanding foam, also displaying a banner stating “mass deportations kill”. Their aim was to prevent the departure of a deportation flight from Stansted Airport that had been chartered by the UK Home Office to forcibly deport 60 migrants to Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The activists said that they acted to prevent human rights abuses from taking place. However, they were accused of putting the safety of the airport and passengers at risk and causing serious disruption to international air travel. The police charged the group with aggravated trespassing, an offence carrying a maximum three-month custodial sentence.


The group

The group included members of the campaigning groups Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants and End Deportations. Members were Helen Brewer, Lyndsay Burtonshaw, Nathan Clack, Laura Clayson, Melanie Evans, Joseph McGahan, Benjamin Smoke, Jyotsna Ram, Nicholas Sigsworth, Alistair Tamlit, Edward Thacker, Emma Hughes, May MacKeith, Ruth Potts and Melanie Strickland.


The deportees

As of 2018, Eleven of the 60 passengers who were to be deported on the aircraft still live in the UK. Amongst the passengers to be deported were two victims of human trafficking. The majority of deportations take place on standard scheduled flights, but in this case, the activists intercepted a mass deportation charter flight. Up to 2,000 people a year travel on these secretive night flights, often shackled in “waist restraint belts” or “leg restraints”. Deportees travel on aircraft hired from charter companies including Titan Airways.


Trial

The Stansted 15 stated that they acted to prevent human rights abuses from taking place but were accused of putting the safety of the airport and passengers at risk and causing serious disruption to international air travel. During the trial, representatives of Amnesty International UK were observing due to the serious concern that the charges had been made to deter other protesters from taking non-violent direct action, and that the group were treated with undue harshness in relation to the severity of the 'crimes'. Following a ten week trial, a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found all members of the group guilty of intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome, under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990, a law passed in response to the 1988
Lockerbie bombing Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...
. Following their conviction, a demonstration to protest against the Stansted 15’s guilty verdict was held outside the Home Office. More than 1,300 attendees turned out to hear MPs
Diane Abbott Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been serving as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 Unit ...
and Clive Lewis speak alongside Lesbian and Gays Support the Migrants.


Appeal

On 29 January 2021, the
Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
quashed the convictions of the Stansted 15, finding that "it could not be established to the criminal standard that the actions of the appellants created disruption to the services of Stansted airport which was likely to endanger its safe operation or the safety of persons there". The Court ruled that there was
no case to answer No case for the defendant to answer (sometimes shortened to no case to answer) is a term in the criminal law of some Commonwealth states, whereby a defendant seeks acquittal without having to present a defence, because of the insufficiency of the ...
: "their conduct did not satisfy the various elements of the offence".


References

{{reflist British human rights activists Direct action Deportation from the United Kingdom