The man with the gag: witnessing a forced deportation
by Project SafeCom Thursday January 13, 2005 at 01:40 PM

Sonia Chirgwin, an environmental consultant working in Tonga and Laos, told the story below to friends. It occurred when she was flying home to Mount Gambier to spend Christmas with her family.

Narrogin WA, 12 Jan 2005, 9:25pm - It had to happen sooner or later: someone on a flight, bound, gagged and muffled, moved under the highest secrecy, deported by force, not only with duct tape over his mouth, but the entire story covered up. Using the Christmas holidays, the absence of the lawyers, the expected silence of those advocates that can block their work - and, as we saw this week, using the cover of the tsunami, that not only flooded the coastline of ten countries, but that also seems to flood the media channels. First the Bakhtiaris, then Iranians, today a Sudanese man. Sonia Chirgwin was there, becoming the "accidental reporter". Thank you, Sonia. We owe you a debt. And note, that while there are AAP reports, they are online-only or wire-only reports. In the "official print versions" we're unlikely to find the story of the Iranian man we deported yesterday - I had to find it at the Jerusalem Post tonight.

Jack

On the 13th of December, I flew from Bangkok to Australia on Thai Airways. After a long flight there was a stopover in Sydney for one hour prior to completing the flight in Melbourne - arriving at approximately midnight. The plane was then returning to Bangkok. I was seated at the very back of the plane. On re-boarding the plane in Sydney, a very officious looking man bustled in and cleared some space in the overhead luggage compartments, reassuring passengers that disturbance would be minimal.

Not understanding what was happening I speculated to my neighbouring passenger that maybe they were bringing on someone in a wheelchair. But then there was an alarming sound - metal scraping on metal, banging and clattering. We exchanged a nervous glance, and then our fellow passenger was on the plane.

www.safecom.org.au/2005/01/man-with-gag-witnessing-forced.htm

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