Paul Benedek, Brisbane

On February 1, refugee-rights activists picketed Emirates Airlines in several cities. The airline is directly involved in forced deportations.

On January 11, the federal Coalition government forcibly deported two asylum seekers using eight guards and chemically sedating the men. One was an Iranian convert to Christianity — a crime punishable by death in Iran.

“These deportations to certain injury or even death”, said Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul to the Brisbane protest, “are condemned not only by refugee groups but also medical associations”. Rintoul compared Emirates to James Hardie: “Both corporations are complicit in practices which knowingly bring death.”

Picketers called for airline workers and their unions to stop any deportations. Recently, a pilot refused to fly a plane carrying a deportee.

In Melbourne, 30 protesters handed a letter to the airline. Street theatre was performed depicting PM John Howard handcuffing and gagging an Iranian poet and handing him over to an Emirates Airlines captain.

From Green Left Weekly, February 9, 2005.
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