Dear Home Office,

We hereby request information pertaining to involuntary removals (deportations) carried out by commercial airlines on behalf of the Home Office in 2018, and during the Windrush affair, and information pertaining to the enforcement of (or voluntary compliance to) Immigration Act 1971 by commercial airlines with respect to these involuntary removals.

Our questions are as follows:

--Re: Removals carried out:--
1a. In 2018, how many times has direction been given to compel an airline to carry out an involuntary removal of persons subject to immigration control, pursuant to Schedule 3 of Immigration Act 1971?
1b. In 2018, how many times has direction been given to British Airways to carry out any such an involuntary removal?
1c. In July of 2018 you provided a response to a separate FOI request (#48932) published here on WhatDoTheyKnow.com that includes an annex provided by Home Office listing specific charter flights carrying out involuntary removals (see: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/4...). Could you please provide a similar list of involuntary removals in 2018 carried out by commercial carriers on behalf of the Home Office?
If that is not possible, could you please provide a tabulated count of how many removals were carried out by each commercial airline used in 2018, specifically indicating the number of deportations carried out by each individual airline? If this is not possible, could you please provide that count specifically for British Airways.

--Re: Offenses to airlines:--
2a. In 2018, how many times has an airline, or an airline’s agent, been charged with an offense under section 27(1)(b)(iii) of Immigration Act 1971 (see: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/197...), which states that “A person shall be guilty of an offence [...] if, as owner or agent of a ship or aircraft [...] he fails, without reasonable excuse, to make arrangements for the removal of a person from the United Kingdom when required to do so by directions given under Schedule 2 or 3 to this Act; or under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; or he fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a direction under paragraph 5B of Schedule 2; or he fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any other requirement imposed by or under Schedule 2”?
2b. In 2018, how many times has an airline, or an airline’s agent, been convicted of the same offence?
2d. In 2018, how many times has British Airways been charged with such offense, and how many times has British Airways been convicted with such offense?

--Re: Commercial carrier contracts:--
3a. Could you please confirm that the Home Office currently has a contract with British Airways for the involuntary removal of persons subject to immigration control? Could you please provide that contract from the Home Office central contracts database, or elsewhere?
3b. What amount has the government paid in 2018 to British Airways pursuant to this contract or arrangement? What is the length of the contract and total anticipated cost?

--Re: Windrush:--
4a. 991 seats were booked on commercial flights to remove people to the Caribbean who were suspected of being in the UK illegally, according to figures provided by the immigration minister Caroline Nokes following a series of parliamentary questions (see: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018...). Could you please provide the name of the air carrier used for each removal? If that is not possible, could you please provide the number of a) removal flights, and b) individuals involuntarily removed, carried out by British Airways between 2010 and 2018 to the Caribbean?
4b. In the same report, Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, told MPs that 63 people may have been wrongfully deported to Caribbean countries and that the Home Office was investigating. Could you please provide the name of the air carriers used for each of these 63 individuals? If that is not possible, could you please provide how many of the 63 removals were carried out by British Airways?

Yours faithfully,
SumOfUs.org