Convicted drug dealer ‘should be let back into UK’ Activist claims deportation ‘broke the rules’
ACONVICTED drug dealer and child of the Windrush Generation, taken from his cell and flown back to Jamaica, says the Government broke its own rules in booting him out of Britain.
Delroy ‘Shabba’ Josephs was deported halfway through a five-year sentence for supplying crack cocaine.
In Birmingham, a city he had called home for 40 years, the 61-year-old left behind his mother, stepfather, brother, sister and grandchildren,
He had no passport, but speaking from the sun-baked shack he calls home in Kitson Town, Josephs claims that under Windrush policies, he had an automatic right of abode.
“They didn’t care,” the former forklift truck driver says bitterly, “they just wanted rid. They sent me to a country where I know nobody with just the shirt on my back.”
As a result, Josephs says stepfather Varvil Brown has had to be placed in a care home. He had cared for the elderly stroke victim.
He is being supported by Birmingham community activist Desmond Jaddoo who has protested to the Home Office.
“There is no difference between Mr Josephs committing an offence and someone born in Britain committing an offence,” he says.
He accuses the Government of arrogance. “Are we back to the days when wrongdoers were shipped off to Australia?” he asks.
Josephs, who arrived here in September 1974, was given his marching orders four years ago. He has, he says, struggled to adapt to life in the Caribbean and has been plagued by illhealth.
“When I got here, I broke down, I broke down in tears,” he says. “They sent me here with just a suitcase.
“They didn’t care, they just wanted me out of the country. The courts gave me five years and I got a life sentence.”
His mother, Bethsaida Brown, arrived in this country in 1958 as part of the exodus of Jamaicans actively encouraged fill job vacancies in the UK. She is still alive, aged 80, and living in Handsworth.
Her only son was left in Jamaica in the care of a grandmother. When the pensioner died, Josephs was placed in a children’s home, cranking up Bethsaida’s efforts to bring him to Birmingham. That was achieved with the active support of Birmingham social services, he maintains, in 1977.
Josephs admits his time in Britain was stained with trouble.
“There were a lot of petty things, a lot of scrapes, when I was younger,” he admits. “I was caught in a stolen car, I got probation.” He did, however, attend college, and found work as a mechanic, then as a forklift driver for Joseph Lucas. By 2012, Josephs found himself immersed in more serious criminal activity. He was convicted of pushing Class A drugs and handed a substantial prison sentence. That conviction spelled the end of his time in Britain. But Jamaica, he insists, will be the death of him. “It is very rough,” he says. “I’m trying to find work, but I fractured my spine and can’t do the lifting. “My home has no furniture, there’s nothing on the floor. I miss my family, especially my stepfather. I did a lot for him. “I think what they did was heartless, it was unfair. “What they did was give me more than a life sentence, they gave me a death sentence. “To be honest, I’ve given up hope of coming home.” Shabba’s criminal conviction is a “red herring”, Mr Jaddoo maintains. He had a right to remain in Britain. “My understanding is that any child of the Windrush Generation was entitled to citizenship,” he explains. “They were covered. They had the right of abode. “This man was in a children’s home in Kingston and that, alone, tells you he has no direct relatives in Jamaica. Clearly, there were no tangible relatives.
“He arrived in this country unaccompanied minor after mother sent for him.
“He was born in Jamaica when Jamaica was under the Union Jack.
“He was here for 40 years. He has a son, a daughter and grandchildren here. He worked here, paid taxes here and paid his National Insurance.
“Yet they tell him he’s an illegal immigrant. It is my understanding that is not the case – he is a direct descendant, a child of the Windrush Generation. The Government will put forward a good conduct argument, but that cannot interfere with someone’s right of abode.
“Mr Josephs did not have to apply for a British passport if he didn’t want as a his to. The law has been misinterpreted, in my opinion. Mr Josephs should be in the UK, yet they turned up in his cell and took him to Gatwick Airport. At the end of the day, they sent him back with just the shirt on his back.”
Mr Jaddoo, a church pastor also slated the Jamaican government, for its part in accepting Josephs.
“Why does Britain feel it is so superior that it can simply ship its own to Jamaica?” he asks.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Secretary has apologised unreservedly for the distress caused to people of the Windrush generation.
“We would encourage any member of the Windrush generation who requires documentation or assistance to contact the helpline and we will be happy to assist further.”