NCADC is asking people to contact CWT on Thursday 3 June 2010
All you have to do is get in touch with Carlson Wagonlit and let them know how you feel about their deportation trade. But don't forget, the person who answers the phone or deals with the faxes and emails and is probably some poorly-paid worker, so there's no call for nastiness or rudeness. We're just trying to get the message through to the bosses that the public know all about what they do, that we find it totally unacceptable, and that that we are going to encourage others to get involved in the campaign to persuade CWT to withdraw from this deportation business. So, get your point across, but remember that being nasty or aggressive is likely to have the opposite effect of what we want.
Contact details:
Contact Carlson Wagonlit Travel's Executive Vice President, UK & Ireland, Andrew Waller and express your deep concern with their part in deportation.
Main Office: Maple House, High Street, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, EN6 5RF
Phone: +44 (0)20 3353 0000
Fax: +44 (0)20 7492 3043
Email: a.waller@carlsonwagonlit.co.uk
you could use some or all of the model text below:
Dear Mr. Waller,
I am writing with deep concern that Carlson Wagonlit Travel has chosen to be contracted by the UK Border Agency to book flights for asylum seekers being forcibly removed from the UK. Many of those deported will face grave danger and possibly death when returned to their countries of origin. Putting people in such danger surely goes against CWT's sense of 'corporate social responsibility' on which the company prides itself.
The asylum-seekers being deported include survivors of torture and rape, people fleeing violence, war, genocide, political persecution and extreme discrimination. They include people who have been severely traumatised in their home country, in their efforts to escape, and in the brutal UK detention system. These people, including families with children, have been denied access to justice and human rights in the UK, and now are being ripped from their adoptive communities and handed over to oppressive regimes they fled, or dumped into poverty and danger. And Carlson Wagonlit Travel is arranging it.
Because the UKBA is trying to deport more people ever faster, often the cases of those deported have not been properly examined. Legal funding is being cut so many asylum-seekers do not have access to legal support. UKBA says it only detains and deports asylum seekers whose cases have been fairly examined and refused, but this is simply not true. A study by Refugee Council, for example, showed that 55% of children detained were later released into the community - in other words, they should never have been in there. Statistics like these demonstrate UKBA's rate of error in examining asylum cases. This rate of error is the same if not more for those who are deported. There are faces and stories behind each seat that you book- these are men, women, children and families who will face serious harm when deported.
I and others concerned with the equal rights and treatment of asylum seekers and migrants are asking CWT to cease its contract with the UKBA. Other companies have withdrawn from the deportation business in the past, when they faced up to their corporate responsibility. For example, in 2009 Air Italy explained the decision to withdraw from UKBA, a contract that bound it to deport people to Iraq, the spokesperson said: “the business sometimes must communicate with the conscience, and this was the reason, conscience.”
We are asking CWT to do business with a conscience.
Please respond and let me know if CWT plans on continuing to deport innocent people to danger
Yours sincerely
name
contact details for reply: