Bob Geldof implores UK's Home Office to reconsider climate activist's deportation

Singer-songwriter and political activist, Bob Geldof, and other notable figures are leading a charge against the Home Office to reconsider the deportation of climate activist Marcus Decker.

Geldof, known for his activism in anti-poverty efforts in Africa with Band Aid and Live Aid, as well as his work with The Boomtown Rats, has now turned his attention to climate activism, after the arrest and proposed deportation of climate activist Marcus Decker who is currently serving one of the longest prison sentences for peaceful protest in modern British legal history.

Geldof and other famous faces including Olivia Coleman and Emma Thompson are asking the Home office to reconsider the “harsh deportation” of Decker.

Decker was sentenced to two years and seven months of jail time in October 2022 for when he and fellow campaigner Morgan Trowland climbed the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over Dartford Crossing and revealed a Just Stop Oil banner.

Decker, who is German, was given a deportation order by the UK Home Office while in prison.

Around 600 artists and musicians have written a letter to the Home Office, urging James Cleverly, the Secretary of State for the Home Department to withdraw the deportation order.

They comment on how Decker's actions were a form of peaceful protest that lasted less than two days and “no one was harmed.”

The letter also states that the actors “believe that punishing him [Decker] with deportation in addition to the 14 months he has already spent in prison is out of proportion to the crime committed and unconducive to the public good.”

They also added that recent events only support Decker's cause. That “just in January of this year police closed both the Dartford Crossing and the Dartford Tunnel due to dangerous weather conditions, causing substantial disruption. Such extreme weather will only become increasingly frequent with escalating climate change.”

More than 150 thousand people have signed a petition against Decker’s deportation. Decker plans to fight the deportation in court once he is released from prison which is expected to be soon.

Decker's partner Trowland, who was given a three year sentence, was already released from prison in December.

Decker is unlikely to be deported as soon as he is released from prison as he has already filed a legal challenge order.

Decker's partner, musician Holly Cullen-Davis comments that “deporting Marcus is the ultimate punishment not just for Marcus but for us, his family. It comes on top of one of the longest jail sentences for a climate protester and is a double punishment.”

Cullen-Davis has been relying on the support and donations of the environmental campaigners to keep her afloat as she has given up most of her work to campaign against the deportation charges.

Cullen-Davis and others like Geldof are doing everything in their power to overturn the deportation charges while Decker is still in prison. In the letter the actors and musicians sent to the Home Office, it calls out the office for making a choice that contradicts the values they proclaim to hold,

“We urge you to consider what it would look like to the rest of the world if the UK, which prides itself in leading on climate action, were to start deporting human rights defenders like Marcus.”

The petition to stop Deckers deportation is available here.