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Drag queen Helvetic Bold went to British Airways headquarters every day for a month. (LGSMigrants)
A drag queen from activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants went to British Airways’ headquarters every day for a month trying to deliver letters calling for the airline to stop deportations.
The 100 letters form part of LGSMigrants’ campaign, #DearBA, which is demanding British Airways end its deportations contract with the Home Office.
Migrants, British Airways staff and customers, artists, politicians and poets have all written letters to British Airways calling for it to stop deportations on its flights.
The letters are a response to British Airways’ own campaign marking its 100th birthday, featuring love-letters to Britain from staff and celebrities.
“They just don’t seem to care,” says drag queen Helvetica Bold, who dressed as a postal worker for her month of trips to British Airways’ headquarters in London, in the video shared exclusively with PinkNews by LGSMigrants.
“I’ve been dragging myself up to the bloody British Airways headquarters every day for a month. And the stack just keeps getting bigger!
“They’re too busy making money to care that hundreds of people are asking them to stop deporting people. It’s a disgrace!”
British Airways has previously said that it carries out deportation flights to comply with UK law.
David Lammy MP is one of the people who wrote a letter to British Airways as part of the LGSMigrants campaign.
“In its centenary year, the question our national carrier faces is whether it wishes to truly represent ‘the best of all things of British’ – of British fairness, morality and due process and end its part in deportation flights, or whether it will continue to play its part in this shameful process,” Lammy said.
“I would strongly urge British Airways to choose the former,” he ended his letter.
A British Airways spokesperson previously told PinkNews in a statement: “We are in the same position as all other airlines. It is a legal requirement (Immigration Act 1971) for all airlines to deport people when asked to do so by the Home Office. Not fulfilling this obligation amounts to breaking the law.
“Airlines only have the right to refuse deportees on the basis that they feel there is a threat to the safety or security of the aircraft and its passengers.”
Sam Björn, an LGSMigrants spokesperson, said, “We don’t know what British values BA think they’re celebrating with this centenary campaign, but we won’t let them whitewash their legacy of supporting the racist hostile environment and enabling the Windrush scandal by claiming to embody them.”
PinkNews has reached out to British Airways for comment.
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