Security guards broke asylum seeker's hand and 'threatened to kill him' at Heathrow Airport

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

An asylum seeker had his hand broken as security guards tried to deport him.

Rahel, who asked The Independent not to publish his full name, also claimed that they threatened to kill him.

Campaigners have complained to the Home Office about the Iraqi man’s treatment as he was put on a plane to be sent to Romania.

The young man, whose photo has been obscured to protect his identity, said the guards ignored his warning that his life was in danger from people-traffickers in the eastern European country who he had helped to expose.

He added that they used excessive force as he “screamed” that he could not return.

The 25-year-old, originally from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, first set foot on European soil in Romania.

Under a European Union rule known as the Dublin regulation, refugees are required to claim asylum in the member state in which they first arrive.

Having failed his asylum claim in the UK, he was due to be deported to Romania.

He was taken from the Colnbrook immigration centre to Heathrow Airport and put on a plane but, he said, he was restrained as he called out before take-off.

Rahel claimed that when he warned the guards that he would not be safe in Romania, they told him: “If you don’t go back to Romania we will kill you here.”

Speaking through a friend and interpreter, he denied having been disruptive or violent on the plane and said the guards injured his neck.

Sam McGill, of the Migration Asylum Justice Forum, said: “Four security guards used excessive force against him, breaking his right hand. He was then taken back to Colnbrook where the medical staff refused to accept that his hand was broken. However, it became clear that he was in substantial pain and he was finally taken to a hospital where an X-ray confirmed he had a broken hand.”

She added: “The Home Office’s hostile environment is subjecting asylum seekers and migrants to brutality and injustice on an unprecedented scale in Britain. Throwing profit driven private contractors into the mix has resulted in death, injury and threats to life.

“From the death of Jimmy Mubenga at the hands of G4S during a forced deportation to Angola in 2010 to Tascor security guards handcuffing people on a burning coach in February to this latest physical assault under the contract with Mitie. We have to push back against the hostile environment and build solidarity with all the migrants, refugees and asylum seekers resisting it on a daily basis.”

Rahel is now due to be deported next week.

The Migration Asylum Justice Forum has submitted a complaint to the Home Office.

The Home Office would neither confirm nor deny that Rahel’s hand was broken during the deportation attempt.

A spokesperson said: “Detention and removal are essential parts of effective immigration controls for those with no lawful basis to stay in the UK. The dignity and welfare of all those in our care is of the utmost importance.”