Award-winning South African writer Ishtiyag Shukri may have been calm and co-operative when he was searched, detained for nine hours at London’s Heathrow Airport and deported last week, but he was furious inside.
“I was calm and co-operative because being aggressive really doesn’t help when you are dealing with people who enjoy their power over others. And that is true of the five officials who dealt with me at various stages of the nine-hour process,” said Shukri, author of The Silent Minaret, which wonthe 2004 European Union Literary Award. “My impression is they all enjoyed their power.”
He believes recent trips to Yemen to visit his wife, a British citizen who was the country director of Oxfam Yemen (one of the UK’s largest international humanitarian aid agencies) at the time, could have influenced the decision to deport him.
Another factor was the increasing heavy-handedness facing African migrants at UK and EU borders.
But he was told the reason for being sent back to South Africa was that his last trip to the UK, in 2012, was more then two years ago.
Shukri, who is currently in a “safe place”, has been married to a British citizen since 1996. Following their marriage, he has held permanent British residence since 1997 with the right to remain indefinitely in the UK.
He told POST that out of personal choice, he has never taken a British passport.
Relating what transpired, he said: “This is not the first time I have been detained, but it is the first time I have been deported. It has happened before at Heathrow. I remember once around the time of the 1994 election being detained but eventually allowed through on the condition that I report to the police every 24 hours. I refused, because I had done nothing wrong.
“Even in apartheid South Africa I was not required to report to the police daily. I was certainly not going to do so in the UK.
“I have also been detained several times by Israeli Immigration on trips to Palestine, and held for up to nine hours, although in the end I have always been let through. That is what is shocking about my deportation from the UK.
“Even Israeli authorities have let me pass into one of the most contested terrains on Earth, while British Immigration turned me back from a London, which has been my home for 20 years.
“Because I had been through the experience so many times, I wasn’t particularly shaken. I drew on those prior experiences.”
He said the luggage search took a while.
“They went through everything, after which I was fingerprinted and photographed. Then there was an interrogation, although they call it an ‘interview’. Two male officers asked many questions, which I answered fully.
“Of course, one puts on a face of calm and remains upright and dignified. Inside I was furious, humiliated and embarrassed. It is a humiliating experience. And being escorted on to your flight while authorities and cabin crew keep hold of your paperwork until arrival, that is humiliating, too.
“But it is important to remain upright, to remain calm, to breathe deeply and remain dignified.
“They can take away your residence stamp, but don’t let them take away your humanity and your dignity.”
Shukri said he was able to make calls but not from his cellphone. “That was taken from me and kept in a separate room. You have to make a note of the number you wish to call, and dial it from a phone in the detention office.”
Asked if he was detained because he was Muslim and had travelled to Yemen and could have been linked to ISIS, he said: “Firstly, I don’t support the use of the term ISIS. There is nothing Islamic about them. To me they are a barbaric state.”
He said he was protesting the official reason given to him regarding the deportation.
Asked why he had not visited the UK since 2012, he said the reasons were private and painful, but he shared them.
They included his mother being ill and dying in 2013 and the changed family circumstances, and visiting his wife in Yemen last year meant there was no reason or time to visit the UK as she was not there.
Also, his novel I See You was launched last year and he was on tour in South Africa.
Shukri said he travelled on a South African passport.
“I have always been of the view that it is my inheritance because South Africa is the country of my birth.
“Our passport has unfortunately lost its status in recent years, but that status will only decline further if we all defect to foreign passports.”
He said he would seek to have his British residence reinstated.