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Photographer

Joe McGahan
Near his home in Oxfordshire

“From the moment they took the steps away from the plane and the realisation that this plane isn't going anywhere, we knew what we had done had been effective. We didn't know at the time that almost two years later 11 people would still be in the country.“

Joe, 35, lived in London for 10 years where he worked at Kew Gardens. He has a degree in ecology and trained as an horticulturalist and got into organic vegetable farming in Oxfordshire. He now works with supplying hemp for the building industry and as a consultant on hemp.

Joe knows people who work with detained people who face deportation and has for a number of years been aware of deportations happening on commercial planes like BA flights. From Joe's experience legal representation is increasingly hard to get if you are in detention so avoiding deportation, in spite of potentially legally qualifying to stay, so the the risk of being deported is increasingly high, accord to Joe. He was aware of at least one lesbian woman who was about to be sent back to Nigeria where being gay is illegal and that she could be in serious danger, he says.

Filename: IC5A3616.jpg
Copyright: Kristian Buus
Image Size: 8000x5334 / 2.9MB
Contained in galleries: Portraits, Portraits of the Stansted 15

Joe McGahan <br />
Near his home in Oxfordshire<br />
<br />
“From the moment they took the steps away from the plane and the realisation that this plane isn't going anywhere, we knew what we had done had been effective. We didn't know at the time that almost two years later 11 people would still be in the country.“<br />
<br />
Joe, 35, lived in London for 10 years where he worked at Kew Gardens. He has a degree in ecology and trained as an horticulturalist and got into organic vegetable farming in Oxfordshire. He now works with supplying hemp for the building industry and as a consultant on hemp. <br />
<br />
Joe knows people who work with detained people who face deportation and has for a number of years been aware of deportations happening on commercial planes like BA flights. From Joe's experience legal representation is increasingly hard to get if you are in detention so avoiding deportation, in spite of potentially legally qualifying to stay, so the the risk of being deported is increasingly high, accord to Joe. He was aware of at least one lesbian woman who was about to be sent back to Nigeria where being gay is illegal and that she could be in serious danger, he says.