XL Airlines cause misery to thousands, as the company goes into receivership. Thousands are stranded without flights. What hasn't been remarked much on is that they are well used to flying people out of the country and not returning them, as seen in their long-time sideline in forced removal of asylum seekers on government-chartered flights.

In February 2007 XL airlines was involved in forcibly removing 40 adults and children on one flight to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The flight was a cynical attempt by the Home Office to remove people just before a High Court ruling on the safety of returned asylum seekers in the Congo. Evidence had been presented to the court showing that asylum seekers being returned to the Congo were routinely detained by Congolese security forces and tortured. Home Office immigration officials would knowingly hand returned asylum seekers to the Congolese authorities at the airport in Kinshasa.

One family from Glasgow with their two small children, one aged four and one only 11 months old, managed to get taken off the flight just before the plane took off. On their return to Glasgow they described people being physically sick with fear and screaming and begging as they were being forced onto the plane.

All four returned to Glasgow and were given indefinite leave to remain last year.

XL's behaviour along with the Home Office sparked large protests in Glasgow and elsewhere around the country. At one point the airline's Croydon office was occupied by campaigners from the No Borders network (report).

Perhaps if XL had worked harder at attracting passengers who wanted to fly, they wouldn't have found themselves bankrupt after flying passengers away but not returning them. It's been reported that financial speculators managed to profit by betting on XL's collapse, a bitter irony considering XL's previous willingness to profit from others' misery.

Good riddance, all in all. Where will the curse of the Home Office strike next, I wonder?