Human rights activists have won an award for their campaign against refugee deportation flights

Human rights activists Freedom from Torture was a big winner at this year’s Foundation Awards, taking home the overall award and top prize in the campaign and advocacy category for their creative campaign “Stop the Flights” launched in response to the UK. The government plans to return asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Sonia Skeets, executive director of Freedom from Torture, said: “Our survivor-led Stop the Flights campaign succeeded in forcing four out of six airlines that were willing to profit from the pain of refugees to withdraw from the scheme.“.

Freedom from Torture fights to protect the right to seek asylum and ensure that asylum seekers are treated fairly in the UK. They fear that if the UK ignores its obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, other countries will follow suit and these human rights will be seriously threatened.

Since last summer, Freedom from Torture’s “Stop the Flights” campaign has attempted to embarrass the government and its private sector partners through a multi-channel strategy, including digital and traditional media, petitions and email campaigns.

One of the companies targeted by the campaign, which has abandoned contracts with the British government, is the Spanish company Privilege Style (pictured above). At a cost of just £10,000 to date, the campaign has managed to prevent the UK government from implementing the Rwanda deportation plan.