The system of forced removals from the UK - which was brought sharply into focus in October last year when Jimmy Mubenga died in tragic circumstances on a flight to Angola from Heathrow - is in need of radical reform.
Private security contractors carrying out forced removals are badly trained and unaccountable. They have used dangerous 'control and restraint' techniques which have led to numerous people alleging ill-treatment. These techniques appear to have resulted in Jimmy Mubenga's death. His widow, Adrienne, is now bringing up their five children without a father. She has joined today with Amnesty International to demand a complete overhaul of the system of forced removals from the UK.
Her husband Jimmy would, she believes, still be alive today if someone independent had been on that flight to monitor how he was being treated. Witnesses said he was screaming "I can't breathe, I can't breathe". But they were just passengers on a commercial flight and had no idea what was happening or whether they should intervene. We're calling for independent monitors on every forced removal flight.
The training of these private contractors also needs a radical overhaul. Our researchers spoke to people who have carried out removals for these companies. They told us that contractors were going on these flights without the required training, yet they were accredited by the Home Office all the same. Training in the safe use of handcuffs - which can cause real pain and damage when wrongly used - is not mandatory. And there's no specific training in how to restrain people safely in the very particular situation on board an aircraft, leading to the use of dangerous techniques that put people's lives at risk.
"Carpet karaoke" is one of these techniques. It earned its nickname among contractors because the detainee's face is forced into the aircraft's carpet, causing them to scream 'like a bad karaoke singer'. They are handcuffed, with a tight seatbelt through the cuffs and their head pushed down between their legs, wedged behind the seat in front. There is a serious risk that people can die when this technique is used.
When Joy Gardener died in 1993 during an enforced removal from the UK, people were shocked at the brutal way she was treated by the police. I remember hearing a poem read by Benjamin Zephaniah about her death as police pinned her to the floor and metres of tape were wound round her. The death of Jimmy Mubenga should be a similar wake-up call to the Home Office.
We're asking people to go to www.amnesty.org.uk/removal and write to Home Secretary Theresa May and urge her to bring forced removals, and the private companies that conduct them, under control. All UK removals should be monitored by an independent body which accompanies and reports on all stages of the removal process. Training needs to be significantly improved, with rigorous checks that staff have received the required level of training before they are allowed to accompany detainees. Better training and independent monitoring also protects the contractors themselves from injury and from allegations of improper treatment.
To improve accountability, all complaints should be investigated by an independent body - not by the company itself and the UK Border Agency, as is current practice.
And companies should not be allowed to sub-contract removals work out to third companies, as reportedly happens today.
The Government should look carefully at the experience of other EU countries. In Germany and France the state uses its own law enforcement personnel for this work. The German experience, where independent monitors are in place on each flight, suggests that allegations of harm during removals can be significantly reduced.
Our report doesn't oppose forced removals per se - we acknowledge that the UK does need to forcibly remove some people from the country. But removals should be conducted safely and those being removed should be treated humanely. They are still people, after all.
Benjamin Zephaniah's poem was published 15 years ago and was written about a mother, not a father like Jimmy Mubenga. But its sentiment, embodied in these lines, applies as much today and to anyone facing removal from this country, as it did back then:
No matter what the law may say
A mother should not die this way
Let human rights come into play
And to everyone apply.