TRAVEL and tourism giant TUI has stopped running deportation flights for the Home Office following pressure from campaigners, migrant rights groups have claimed.

The German holiday firm became the main airline carrying out charter flights for the British government in 2020 and 2021, according to research group Corporate Watch. 

This led to Soas Detainee Support (SDS), a group offering legal and welfare support to people held in immigration removal centres, to target the company.

SDS called on TUI to “end its complicity in the Home Office’s deportation regime.” 

On Monday, the activists claimed victory after reporting that the airline has not operated a charter flight for the past six months. 

The group said that it first heard rumours from sources last September that the airline had pulled out of its agreement with the Home Office following a series of protests against the firm last summer. 

“It has now been almost six months since TUI has run a flight while previously they were weekly,” the statement reads.

“We are happy to announce the success of the campaign.”

TUI declined to comment when approached by the Morning Star today. 

The Home Office said that it does not comment on commercial arrangements. 

Last year the holiday airline was thought to have run a series of deportation flights to Vietnam, which campaigners warned risked sending victims back into the hands of traffickers. 

SDS campaigns spokesman Steve Jackson told the Morning Star that by deciding to run the flights, TUI was complicit in the harms and “violence” of deportations. 

“Firms like TUI love to shirk responsibility, but it’s very much a political and a profit-motivated choice to take part,” Mr Jackson said.

“They are choosing at every point to put profit over people.”

He said that he hoped the move would send a message to businesses that “they can’t just quietly be complicit in the hostile environment.”

“They are going to be targeted and they are going to face repercussions,” he said. 

The campaign to stop TUI deportations was also supported by Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (Barac), Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants and the Kurdistan Solidarity Network.

Barac co-founder Zita Holbourne said: “It’s horrific that TUI felt it acceptable to profit from the inhumanity and misery of black and brown people then promote holidays in those very countries.”

It comes as campaigners warned of a possible upcoming charter flight to Zimbabwe.

Ms Holbourne said that several Zimbabwe nationals have been rounded up for detention in recent weeks. 

“Many of those targeted had to flee for their lives to the UK and are at danger if returned,” she warned. 

This is not the first time an airline has pulled out of the Tories’ deportation regime. 

In 2018, Virgin Atlantic announced that it would no longer help the Home Office to deport people following pressure from LGBT groups and anger over the Windrush scandal.