Campaigners Urge Home Office To Stop Deportation Flight To Jamaica

Home Office plans to charter a deportation flight to Jamaica before Christmas will put lives at risk as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, campaigners have warned.

Earlier this month, HuffPost UK revealed that the government would continue its deportation flights during England’s second lockdown, despite a ban on international travel.

Now, it is understood a flight to Jamaica has been scheduled for December 2 – the day lockdown ends.

The Home Office would not say how many people are set to be deported on the flight but a spokesperson insisted they were all “foreign national offenders”.

Under UK law, non-British citizens who are convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to 12 months or more in prison in the UK can be eligible for deportation.

The Home Office makes “no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals to keep the public safe”, the spokesperson said.

They added that people being detained for the flight include convicted murderers and rapists. They also listed other serious offences committed by those set to be on the flight, but declined to provide the full list of convictions when asked by HuffPost UK.

Zita Holbourne – co-founder of BARAC UK, a group that campaigns against racism and for migrant rights, said that “those targeted for deportation are branded by government as hardened criminals”.

“But the reality is that some are criminalised by virtue of their immigration status and for others, they have committed lesser offences, [are the] victims of county lines, or have been convicted under the now defunct joint enterprise law,” she said.

Holbourne said many of those on the flight would likely...

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