FRONTEX WATCH

Home Secretary John Reid said: “During the past two years there have been 1,173 occasions when attempts to remove detained people have failed due to disruptive behaviour on their part. If a detainee cannot be removed due to their disruptive behaviour they are returned to detention and arrangements are made to remove them as soon as possible with in-flight escorts.”The scale of Britain’s problem with “air-rage” asylum seekers emerged last night, as immigration experts revealed would-be deportees regularly scream and lash out, attack cabin crew and even strip naked on planes in a desperate bid to delay the end of their dreams of staying in the UK.
They had to be returned to detention in the UK and in some cases could only be successfully removed from the country when accompanied by in-flight escorts, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds a time.

No reference was made to British experiences with European joint deportations flights.
According to a press release of the Dutch Justice department the first joint deportation flight to Africa started from Amsterdam already in May 2004. Involved were the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany.
In January 22, 2004 the European Commission had reserved 30 million € for European Joint Return Operations, including the logistical preparation and the chartered flights, for 2005 and 2006.

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