Deportation bureaucracy meets aviation bureaucracy

by philg

Here’s some good news for Jet A suppliers: “U.S. Put 92 Somalis on a Deportation Flight, Then Brought Them Back” (nytimes). From the article:

Ninety-two Somali citizens were flown out of the United States under orders of deportation on Thursday, but their plane never made it to Somalia. The flight landed in the West African country of Senegal and, facing logistical problems, was rerouted back to the United States.

In an emailed statement on Friday, the agency said it was notified that a relief flight crew was “unable to get sufficient crew rest due to issues with their hotel in Dakar,” so the aircraft and detainees spent time parked at the airport there. It added that “various logistical options were explored, and ultimately ICE decided to reschedule the mission to Somalia and return to the United States with all 92 detainees.”

What about the notoriously efficient Germans? “Pilots stop 222 asylum seekers being deported from Germany by refusing to fly” (Independent):

Pilots have stopped 222 deportations of asylum seekers from Germany by refusing to take off with them on board.

Many of the pilots refused to take control of flights taking people back to Afghanistan, where violence is still rife following years of war and occupation by Western forces.

Some of the flights belonged to Lufthansa and its subsidiary, Eurowings.

The decision not to carry a passenger, was ultimately down to the pilot on a “case-by-case decision”, Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty…

German publication RBB24 quoted a Lufthansa pilot who did not want to be identified as saying pilots would normally refuse to take off if a potential deportee answers “no” when asked if they want to take the flight.

“We have to prevent anyone from being freaked out during the flight, and we have to protect the other passengers as well,” the pilot reportedly said.

Pilots can face disciplinary measures if they refuse to fly on moral grounds.

Lufthansa Group spokesman Helmut Tolksdorf told RBB24 that he was not aware of “any case where one of our pilots has refused to take them for reasons of conscience”.

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2 thoughts on “Deportation bureaucracy meets aviation bureaucracy”

  1. Intriguingly, it is

    3,800 miles from JFK to Dakar,
    4,120 miles from Dakar to Miami

    and

    4,350 miles from Dakar to Mogadishu.

  2. If only the wall was 50,000 feet tall only a small percentage of aircraft could pass over it!

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