Demonstrators: Deportation flight an act of terror
A PROTEST demonstration outside the Jamaican High Commission in London on Thursday, organised by campaign group Movement for Justice, drew about 20 placard-bearers calling for a planned mass deportation flight next Wednesday to be halted.
The group said the Home Office deportation charter flights are an act of terror against families and communities and they must be stopped.
Karen Doyle, national organiser for Movement for Justice, said: “The mass deportation charter flight has meant families being broken apart, children being left without parents, people with mental health difficulties and disabilities being locked up.
“Members of our community, people we went to primary school with, and their families, are being terrorised and traumatised. All this government can do is spout racist stereotypes and push forward with the most draconian immigration legislation in British history.”
Movement for Justice is fighting to save detainees who arrived in Britain as children, and the Jamaican High Commission was able to get people removed with this claim on previous charter flights, which is why the demonstration was held outside the mission.
DUE LEGAL PROCESS
Commenting on the protest and the impending Home Office flight, Jamaica’s High Commissioner Seth George Ramocan said: “It is important that individuals earmarked for deportation are allowed due legal process to determine their rights of abode and proper human rights procedures are observed in the removal process.
“From a human rights perspective, I am deeply concerned about cases in which persons are being removed, having lived in the UK since childhood and have no known relations in Jamaica or familiarity with the country. There are clear examples of these cases and I implore the Home Office to give due consideration to this concern.”
Ramocan also said Thursday’s demonstrators did not seek audience with the high commission.
Meanwhile, Labour member of parliament (MP) for Stretham, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, has called on the Government to halt the deportation of vulnerable members of her south London constituency.
In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, the Labour MP demanded the Home Office remove two of her constituents from Wednesday’s planned deportation flight, as neither of the women, who have been in Britain for seven years, have a criminal conviction.
According to the MP, both women have been in the country for over seven years but were recently refused further leave to remain, in spite of appealing on the grounds of family life and human rights.
WINDRUSH SCANDAL
Ribeiro-Addy said: “In previous incidents, these charter flights have been used exclusively to deport foreign national offenders (FNO). Non-FNOs have not been included on a Jamaica charter flight since 2018. If the flight goes ahead, it will be the first of its kind since the Windrush scandal.
“This decision typifies the way the Government frequently fails to make a proper assessment of individuals’ situation and needs in their haste to deport.
“What we’re seeing is exactly the same deport-first-ask-questions-later approach that led to so much suffering in the Windrush scandal.
“The Government should not be tearing apart vulnerable families dealing with difficult personal circumstances – especially not while we have an ongoing pandemic.”
Next Wednesday’s charted deportation flight is the second in a matter of months this year. Last August, a similar flight left the UK with only seven persons deported out of a planned 50, as last-minute legal challenges and vigorous campaigning by human rights groups, like Movement for Justice, BARAC UK and National Windrush Organisation won reprieve for the majority of detainees.
Responding to questions to confirm the flight is going ahead, a Home Office spokesperson said: “Those with no right to be in the UK and 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.
“Extensive checks have taken place to ensure no one being removed is a British citizen or eligible for the Windrush scheme. People are only removed to their country of origin when it is deemed safe to do so.
“Our new Nationality and Borders Bill will create an immigration system that is fair but firm, welcoming those in genuine need but cracking down on those who come to the UK illegally.”