MP in call to stop ‘cruel and racist’ deportation flight
A CITY MP has called on the government to cancel a mass deportation flight to Jamaica later this month.
In December, after the Windrush scandal, a deal was struck between the Home Office and the Jamaica High Commission that those who came to the UK as children would not be sent back on charter flights.
Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe claims a deportation flight of people originally from Jamaica who have completed prison sentences for drug offending was breaking that deal.
According to information compiled by Movement for Justice, some of those facing deportation on Wednesday came to the UK as children – five were under 12 – and all had served their full sentences.
Ms Webbe said: “The government will once again try to say this callous charter flight is about protecting the public from dangerous criminals.
“Yet this could not be further from the truth.
“Deportation flights have nothing to do with protecting the public.
“They force black people who have lived in the UK for decades into exile for what are often minor crimes, 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. The government must cancel the upcoming deportation flight.”
A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: “We make no apology for seeking to remove those with no right to remain in the UK and dangerous foreign criminals.
“That is why we regularly operate charter flights to different countries – to remove foreign offenders, and those who have no right to be in the country but refused or failed to leave voluntarily.
“This flight is not linked to the Windrush Review or the wrongs that the Windrush Generation faced.
“None of those to be deported are British citizens, British nationals or members of the Windrush generation.
“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.”
HOME OFFICE DEFENDS THE MOVE TO SEND EX-PRISONERS TO JAMAICA