Anti-Deportation Protesters Temporarily Halt Operations at London Stansted

A group of activists entered an air-side area at STN late on Tuesday and locked themselves to a plane bound for West Africa.

Operations were temporarily halted at London Stansted Airport (STN) late on Tuesday night when a group of anti-deportation activists managed to break into a secure air-side area, construct a barricade and lock themselves to a craft in a non-commercial part of the facility.

The Telegraph reports that eight protesters from three different groups – End Deportations, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants) and Plane Stupid – employed tripods and arm tubes to secure themselves to the plane in a protest against mass deportation flights. The craft was bound for Ghana and Nigeria.

In a blog post, the group End Deportations confirmed that its members took part in the action. It hailed the protest as a victory, saying “This is the first time this kind of direct action has successfully stopped a mass deportation charter flight.”

While police were able to quickly halt the protest, a number of activists remained at STN until Wednesday morning. The incident resulted in the disruption of operations from the airport and the cancellation of the West Africa-bound plane.

Police in Essex, the English county in which STN is located, publicly confirmed that they had made three arrests during the course of the incident.

Seeking to offer reassurance, acting assistant chief constable Sean O’Callaghan told the outlet that “We have contingency plans in place for any incident at the airport and have quickly contained the protesters in one area with minimal impact on airport operations and procedures.”

Flights from the airport resumed by 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday night.

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