DEPU — Deportee Unaccompanied

What DEPU Signals in a Booking

DEPU is one of a small family of IATA Special Service Request (SSR) codes used to flag a passenger's status in the airline's reservation system so that check-in staff, gate agents, cabin crew and the destination authority all see the same information. Specifically, DEPU marks a passenger who is being deported or otherwise removed from a country without an accompanying escort officer. The code travels with the PNR from booking through to arrival, so every system and every member of staff who touches that booking — not just the original check-in agent — knows the passenger's status.

DEPU vs DEPA

DEPU is deliberately distinct from DEPA (Deportee Accompanied), which marks a removal case travelling *with* a law-enforcement or immigration escort. The distinction matters operationally: a DEPA case is the escort's responsibility to manage in-flight, while a DEPU case is not — cabin crew and gate staff must be aware that no official is present to intervene if the situation on board or at the gate requires it. Airlines generally reserve the right to refuse carriage of a deportee case, escorted or not, if crew safety cannot be reasonably assured.

Notification and Handling Requirements

Because a DEPU passenger is being removed under legal authority rather than travelling voluntarily, both the operating airline and the destination country's border authority are notified in advance through the same passenger-data channels used for API/PNR transmission. Ground and cabin staff handling of a DEPU case relies on standard awareness protocols — briefing crew before boarding, seating considerations, and coordination with ground security — rather than on a dedicated escort, since none is present by definition.

Related SSR Codes

DEPU sits alongside a broader set of IATA SSR codes covering passenger categories requiring special handling — INAD (inadmissible passenger, denied entry and being returned), and the various medical and mobility codes such as MEDA and WCHR. All of these codes exist for the same underlying reason: to make a passenger's status visible to every system and every person handling that booking, without requiring a phone call or a note buried in free text.