Friday 14-12-2018 - 16:33

Your Full-Time Officer Team is calling on all students to stand in solidarity with former Lancaster University Students’ Union President Laura Clayson, who faces prison over a peaceful protest at Stansted Airport that prevented the deportation of 60 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Laura and her fellow protestors – now known as the Stansted 15 – cut a hole in a fence at the airport and used pipes and expanding foam to lock themselves around the wheel of the plane to prevent it from taking off.

Their action in March 2017 gave the 60 deportees on board the plane time to find further legal support – 11 of those who had been due for deportation are still in the UK as a result of the protest.

This week the Stansted 15 were found guilty of an offence under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act, and now face the prospect of life in prison when they are sentenced in February.

We believe that the actions of Laura and her fellow protestors were a justified, humane act aimed at preventing a gross injustice.

Many of those due for deportation faced the danger of physical harm or even death in the places they were being sent to, and we find it abhorrent that the Stansted 15 face such a severe punishment for peacefully taking a stand.

Laura Clayson is a brave, principled and profoundly caring individual, and we as an officer team pay tribute to her and her fellow protestors.

YOUR FULL-TIME OFFICER TEAM 2018-19

What you can do to support Laura and the Stansted 15

• Sign the petition on change.org demanding an end to charter deportation flights and for the Stansted 15 to be spared prison: https://www.change.org/p/home-office-end-the-hostile-environment-and-deportation-charter-flights-justice-for-the-stansted-15
• Join the ‘Lancaster Stands with Stansted’ demonstration in Dalton Square at 6pm on Tuesday December 18 https://www.facebook.com/events/308318683356062/
• Donate to the Stansted 15 legal fund: https://chuffed.org/project/end-deportations-charter-flight-action-trial-related-costs