Deportations of criminals blocked by 11th-hour appeal

PRITI Patel has been forced to cancel the deportation of 50 convicted Jamaican criminals after a last-minute legal challenge.

The Home Secretary’s plans to remove the detainees, convicted of offences including manslaughter and rape, were blocked after campaigners said the deportation would risk repeating the mistakes of the Windrush scandal.

The deportation flight had been due to leave the UK early this morning.

But after lawyers for some of the detainees applied for a judicial review yesterday, a judge ruled the deportations should not go ahead if the Jamaican nationals were not able to make phone calls to their lawyers in the two detention centres near Heathrow where they were being held.

Campaigners hailed the ruling as a victory yesterday as they said it would block the deportation of at least 56 detainees.

However, it was unclear if detainees held at other centres, such as one near Gatwick, could still be deported on the flight this morning.

Lady Justice Simler granted the order without a court hearing following an urgent application by charity Detention Action, which argued some of the detainees at Colnbrook and Harmondsworth immigration removal centres could not use their phones after an O2 phone mast stopped working in the area.

This meant they did not have adequate access to legal advice, the court heard.

Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action, said: ‘We are delighted with this landmark decision which is a victory for access to justice, fairness and the rule of law. On the basis of this order from our Court of Appeal we do not believe anyone currently detained at the Heathrow detention centres can be removed on tomorrow’s flight. We understand that this will apply to at least 56 people.’

Toufique Hossain, director of public law at law firm Duncan Lewis, said: ‘For weeks now detainees’ complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Their removal looms large, hours away, and yet again it takes judicial intervention to make the Home Office take basic, humane and fair steps to allow people to enjoy their constitutional right to access justice.’

A separate injunction to halt the flight was refused. More than 170 MPs had urged the Government to stop the flight, which had been chartered privately by the Home Office.

Critics said the deportation flight risks repeating errors made in 2018 when migrants from the Caribbean who arrived in Britain before 1973 – known as the Windrush generation – were wrongly deported. Downing Street defended the latest deportation attempt, insisting the 50 offenders due to be aboard the flight had all been found guilty of serious crimes.

‘It’s correct to say some of those on board are convicted of manslaughter, rape, violence and drug dealing,’ Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said. ‘It is long-standing government policy that any foreign national offender sentenced to 12 months or more in prison should be considered for deportation.’

Thought to be among the deportees are a 23-year-old man, who arrived in Britain aged five, jailed for 15 months for drug offences; a 40-yearold man jailed for seven years for a stabbing; and a father-of-three, 31, jailed for 15 months for assault. Home Office minister Kevin Foster said the detainees had been jailed for a total of 300 years.

‘Landmark decision’