Stop ‘racist’ deportation flights – MP

HOME SECRETARY SAYS THOSE THROWN OUT COMMITTED CRIMES

CITY MP Claudia Webbe has written to the Home Secretary calling for an end to deportation flights.

The Leicester East MP said the government had “reneged on a deal” not to deport people who came to the UK as children, and that some of those scheduled for removal on a recent flight to Jamaica had “zero criminal convictions.

In her letter to Priti Patel, Ms Webbe, pictured, said: “I am writing regarding the recent deportation flight to Jamaica, and to oppose your government’s continued fixation on charter flights and removals.

“As you will be aware, on November 10 a deportation flight left from the UK to Jamaica.

“Due to several important legal challenges, 33 people did not board the flight as planned – meaning just four people were on board.

“These deportations reinforce the government’s Hostile Environment policy and are wrong.

“Having already been punished the people who faced deportation are being punished again with additional time in detention centres and a further punishment of deportation which, for some, effectively means a death sentence.

“Despite the government’s rhetoric, there were people scheduled for removal on this flight with zero criminal convictions.

“In December 2020 a deal was struck between the Home Office and the Jamaican High Commission that those who came to the UK as children would not be put on charter flights.

“Your government has now reneged on this deal – of the 37 people originally faced with deportation, at least 10 came to the UK as children.

“Deportation flights have nothing to do with protecting the public.

“They force disproportionately black people – who have lived in the UK most of their lives – into exile forwhat are often minor, non-violent offences, destroying their lives and that of their families in the process.

“Often, people are deported to countries they either have no memory of or traumatic experiences of horrific abuse.

This is cruel, racist and disproportionate punishment that is not designed to make Britain safer but instead designed to stoke the flames of racial hatred and division.

“I strongly urge your government to ensure the safety of the four deported individuals, to cancel the deportation of the remaining 33 people along with all others currently in detention centres, and to abandon the hostile environment which has caused immeasurable suffering for too many African, African-Caribbean, Asian and other racialised British residents.”

The sentences of all those who were intended to get on to the flight on Wednesday totalled 127 years, the Home Office said.

Ms Patel said: “I make no apology for removing foreign national offenders who have committed crimes which will have had a devastating impact on their victims.

“The people removed to Jamaica today are convicted criminals who have been found guilty of a range of serious offences. They have no place in our society.

“It is absolutely galling that, yet again, last-minute legal claims have stopped the removal of 33 people, including those guilty of abhorrent crimes such as murder and child sex offences.

“This is why our Nationality and Borders Bill will deliver changes to the law to make it easier to remove foreign criminals and prevent them from gaming the broken system.”

The Home Office said extensive checks have been carried out to ensure none of the criminals deported were British citizens, British nationals or members of the Windrush generation.

A Movement for Justice survey of 17 Jamaicans detained for the flight found that 10 of them had lived in the UK since they were children.

Seth Ramocan, Jamaica’s High Commissioner in London, told the told Guardian: “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 Jamaica.”