Quaker climate activist Marcus Decker wins appeal against deportation
Quaker climate activist Marcus Decker has won his appeal against deportation, in a case that drew widespread support from Chris Packham, Quakers, and climate campaigners.
Decker, 36, a member of Tottenham Quaker Meeting, faced deportation to his native Germany after being sentenced to more than two years in prison for scaling the Dartford Crossing in 2022 as part of a Just Stop Oil protest.
Alongside another activist, he climbed 200 feet up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, unfurling a banner and causing major disruption.
[QUOTE-START]
We welcome this ruling but urge the government to reconsider the increasingly repressive laws against protest
- Paul Parker
[QUOTE-END]
The sentences they received were among the longest ever handed down for nonviolent protest in modern British history.
While he was in prison, the Home Office served Decker, who has a partner and two stepchildren in the UK, with a deportation order to his native Germany.
Deportation orders are made when a person's presence is not thought beneficial to the public good, especially if they've received a custodial sentence of a year or more.
At an immigration tribunal on 10 November, barristers from Matrix Chambers argued that Decker had acted out of conscience.
They said he was a model citizen with a strong moral compass, comparing climate defenders to suffragettes and anti-apartheid activists whose causes were once condemned but later celebrated.
Outside the hearing in Islington, naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham joined a silent Quaker meeting for worship in solidarity with Decker.
The judge confirmed that Decker had won his appeal, though the Home Office is expected to challenge the ruling once formal legal explanations are issued in two weeks' time.
Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “We are facing an existential threat thanks to the climate crisis. Marcus Decker served a draconian prison sentence for bearing witness to that threat.
“That that sentence was then used to suggest his presence here was not conducive to the public good, when he is demonstrably a credit to humanity, sets a dangerous precedent.
“We welcome this ruling but urge the government to reconsider the increasingly repressive laws against protest."
Read more about Quaker environmental defenders and repressive protest laws here