Trust consumer capitalism to scrape the barrell. If there is an opportunity to make money out of it, they will. There’s currently some ho-har over Naomi Klein’s new book on “disaster capitalism”. In Britain, we don’t need natural disasters for money making opportunities; we have asylum seekers for that.
I used to think that perhaps trying to make a quick quid out of some of the most oppressed people in Britain is more impossible than trying to extract the proverbial, but then again, I believe that old friend of public services Sodexho tried to make money out of the rather humiliating (perhaps for all parties concerned; but more so for the asylum seekers themselves) scheme of vouchers for food. Sort of like second-class Luncheon Vouchers.
So, the news that some enterprising Austrian “aviation consultant” called Heinz Berger (yes, his name makes me hungry as well) is to set up an airline specialising in forced removal of asylum seekers, according to the Independent.
Never mind that there have been allegations (Hello, Mr Solicitor!) of “physical and racial abuse” against Mr Burger’s operations, and that airlines like XL refusing to do business with the Home Office and take those pesky asylum seekers home. Apparently, there are a huge number of “aborted” “removals” (didn’t “removals” used to be called “deportations” or something? I can never keep up) because those troublesome asylum seekers are “disruptive”. Well, I’d be bloody “disruptive” if I were to be returned to a place where I might be murdered. Or worse.
Herr Burger promises clients specialist aircraft with restraints and holding cells on board. Has he been watching Con Air too much? These people are not criminals; they have committed no crime, except to seek sanctaury.
If anything, I would hope that this might shut up the racists of the ”swamping brigade” who parrot what racist bile that comes out of the Daily Mail. Surely, if there is a market for a specialist airline which forcibly moves asylum seekers from one place to another back to places where they will be tortured or murdered, then are we really being swamped now? I don’t know.
That is pretty sickening, but where money is to be made there will be someone low enough to try and corner the market. If lucrative, expect this sordid operation to be taken over by one of the bigger airlines.
Good to see you blogging again, comrade