HUMAN rights groups have said they fear for the lives of Zimbabwean nationals deported on a Home Office charter flight on Wednesday night. 

One campaigner, who was on the phone to a deportee on board the flight, described distressing scenes in the minutes leading up to take-off, saying she could hear men screaming: “You’re killing us.”  

The deportation flight went ahead from Birmingham airport to Harare, despite concerns raised about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.