How the scumbag 'nasty party' deal with Immigrants.

I’m editor of Liberty Investigates, Liberty's editorially independent journalism unit.

I wanted to send you our latest investigation with the Observer – the largest investigation we've done to date. It tells the story of deportation flight ‘Esparto 11’.

Esparto 11 was the first in an unprecedented schedule of charter flights that left the UK late last year – all taking asylum seekers to European states where they’d previously registered, without first hearing their claims. Many were from war-plagued countries such as Syria, Yemen and Sudan. A number are thought to have been survivors of trafficking or torture.

We revealed that the Home Office cut corners when rushing these flights through. Operating under a secret policy, officials axed questions important to flagging potential trafficking victims, which meant the removal of at least one Esparto 11 passenger was potentially unlawful. Some of the detainees also could not access a lawyer before their flight, denying them their entitlement to representation.

The flight itself was an ugly event. Internal records show how officers used force on at least six “non-compliant” asylum seekers. They deployed controversial techniques that intentionally cause pain on four of them, including two deemed at risk of self-harm or suicide. Of the four Esparto 11 passengers we traced, at least two would have been presumed eligible for refugee status had their claims been heard in the UK.

Nicola Burgess, legal director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told us that "use of force in these circumstances is a violation of rights, is inhumane and severely risks retraumatising vulnerable people". And she went on to point out that this isn’t an isolated example, but rather “the story of Esparto 11 is a paradigm of the UK’s inhumane asylum system".

The investigation sheds new and rare light on the fear and brutality people experience in chaotic circumstances by a removals system that usually operates in secret. Alison Thewliss MP said our findings “substantiate the worst fears of many” about how the Home Office treats the most vulnerable people in the asylum system.

This investigation was all made possible by the support of members like you.