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GBR | May 18, 2022

Seven Jamaicans deported this morning from Britain

/ Our Today

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Durrant Pate/Contributor

Seven Jamaicans have been deported from Britain earlier today (May 18) having been placed on a Home Office deportation flight.

The Guardian newspaper, in its report, indicated that the Home Office of the United Kingdom initially had 100 people on the list of Jamaican nationals to be deported. Home Office deportation flights to Jamaica are among the most contentious carried out, as many of those earmarked for removal have Windrush connections or have been in Britain since childhood.

Most if not all of them have children and other close relatives in the United Kingdom. Some of those convicted of drugs and firearms offences as teenagers have been found to be victims of county line grooming and exploitation. The Guardian is reporting today that at lunchtime yesterday, there were still almost 20 people due to fly to Jamaica but many had their tickets cancelled after legal actions were lodged on their behalf.

Among those who did not make the trip was Mark Nelson, who has lived in the UK for 22 years, has five British children and was facing deportation following a conviction for cultivating cannabis plants. A 34-year-old man with severe learning disabilities also had his ticket cancelled.

Detainees waged deportation protest

About 30 detainees not due to fly to Jamaica blocked the exercise yard at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near London’s Heathrow Airport yesterday evening, in an attempt at preventing officers from removing three men due to be deported.

The protest was dispersed and the three men were taken to the London Stansted Airport to board the flight.

Tom Pursglove, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, indicated that, “those on the flight had received 58 convictions for 127 offences including rape of a minor, sexual assault against children, firearms offences and actual bodily harm.”

MP Tom Pursglove, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration. (Photo: Daily Express)

According to him, “public safety is non-negotiable. What we have seen is more last-minute claims from specialist law firms.”

A Home Office spokesperson commented that, “those with no right to be in the UK, including foreign national offenders, should be in no doubt that we will do whatever is necessary to remove them. This is what the public rightly expects and why we regularly operate flights to different countries. The new plan for immigration will fix the broken immigration system and stop the abuse we are seeing by expediting the removal of those who have no right to be here.”

Karen Doyle of Movement for Justice, an organisation that has been campaigning against today’s charter flight responded that: “At 2:00 am this morning we had to comfort a new mum whose family and future have been ripped apart. Today she has to tell their five-year-old daughter who dotes on her daddy that he’ll likely never again be in the same room as them. These flights are brutal and inhumane.”

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