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A recontextualisation of Woody Guthrie’s ‘Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)’ inspired by the events which took place on 13th May when the UK Home Office sent a dawn raid to Kenmure Street on the Southside of Glasgow to deport two asylum seekers, Sumit Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh, on the last day of Eid. Hundreds of people took to the street for eight hours to surround the van that the men were detained in, and human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar was present to support the men. They were finally released by the UK Home Office van. We vehemently oppose the hostile immigration policy of the United Kingdom.
lyrics
The city is quiet, morning is breaking
The people are making their daily commute
Down in the southside, they’ve spied a big white van
The government say they’re to end a dispute
Over two men who settled and thrived in this nation
Who made it their home and who worked all their lives
Torn from their homes on the holiest day
And judged by the press through their bigoted eyes
The suits down in Whitehall make justifications
For tearing a family apart in the street
You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane
And all they will call you will be deportees.
But the people of Glasgow they took to the streets
Defending their neighbours, raided at dawn
For eight hours they sat there, chanting and singing
Your home is in Glasgow, you’re where you belong
Why should we continue to stay in this Union
A Union that doesn’t treat us with respect
We should carve our own path and set our own rules
And value the people we ought to protect
Think of that woman who makes the decisions
Who wears her posh suit, and who smirks at the press
She thinks “taking back control” means deporting our people
Instead of the issues she ought to address
No one is illegal, no matter where they come from
We’re still toiling through Westminster’s lies
The system is broken but we see a way out
It’s time now for Scotland to stand up and rise
The suits down in Whitehall make justifications
For tearing a family apart in the street
You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane
And all they will call you will be deportees.
Is this the best way we can grow our own nation
How can we move forward if we can’t agree
And they shouldn’t be sent to ride the big airplane
When all they will call you will be deportees.
Iona Fyfe 
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