Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 75, February/March 2000
On 15 December the High Court ruled in favour of asylum-seeker John Quaquah, who had sought a judicial review of the decision to deport him. John was one of the ‘Campsfield 9’, whose farcical trial collapsed in June 1998 when it became clear that the Group 4 guards giving evidence about a revolt at the privately-run Campsfield House Immigration Detention Centre, were repeatedly lying to the court about what had happened.
Following his acquittal, John Quaquah began civil proceedings against Group 4 and the Home Office; however the Home Office served him with a deportation order, maintaining he could continue his civil action from Ghana. They were no doubt aware that in reality this would be virtually impossible; and hoped to save themselves from having the embarrassing debacle of the Campsfield trial brought up yet again.
The High Court judge accepted that removing a would-be litigant to another continent was not compatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the new rules on Civil Procedures, both of which require an ‘equality of arms’ between parties.
Hopefully, the civil case which John Quaquah now brings will dish as much dirt as possible both on Campsfield House itself and on the Home Office’s contract with Group 4 to run it and other private prisons and immigration detention centres.
