Two men tested positive for Covid-19 after the controversial flight to Jamaica

By Trina Dawes

The UK is planning another mass deportation to Jamaica on the 2nd of December. There are cries of institutionalized racism as these some of these men have not had access to due process and an immigration advice. There were over 50 people scheduled to be deported to their home countries. However, with appeals from immigration lawyers and human rights lawyers, there were only 13 people deported on the charter flight. More than 35 people on the flight were granted last minute reprieve.

Activist organization Movement for Justice (MfJ) said eight of the men due to be deported have 31 children between them, aged between three and 18. The men are being held in detention centers, and have not been allowed visits from family members to say goodbye due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Immigration lawyer Brighton Mutebuka said: "The key challenges are the politics around deportations. “There have been changes to the immigration sector in 2015, which saw the massive impact of brutal cuts to legal aid. "This has had a chilling effect on access to justice. "This resulted in cuts to legal aid and there is also the absence of skilled immigration lawyers. It is affecting migrants in the UK.”

"Many of these migrants who are being deported; are left traumatized, as they are ripped apart from their families, and lives that they built,” said Mutebuka.

“There has been a massive amount of appeal’s happening during these deportations.”

As an example, he said that when someone is arrested, they may be sentenced for a longer period more than 12 months, which gives the Home Office the legal right to deport them. Even if the person has been in the UK since a child, once deportation has taken place, it is hard to challenge the Home Office, Mutebuka said.

“A few people have accessed legal aid after being deported, and the Home Office has been forced by the judiciary to bring the person back.” He added all migrants are bundled together and seen as statistics.

The process of mass deportation has been described as a human rights issue. The Home Office has been described as not fit for purpose by Mr Mutebuka.

Aaron Watson, son of a deported immigrant from Jamaica said: "I felt lost and confused. I was devasted because I did not know what was going to happen.” He said he also did not know why his father was being deported.

"Later on, in my life, I felt rejected and couldn't understand why he would not come back and see me,”

Watson added he felt “outraged” over the planned mass deportation and “sympathy for the children being broke up from their families.”

The Home Office plans came as a shock to some communities in the wake of the Windrush scandal, which saw many Jamaican Nationals and British Citizens illegally deported from the UK. The scandal, which broke in April 2018, saw the UK government apologize for deportation threats to Jamaicans nationals many of whom had been in the UK for decades and had no links to Jamaica. They were told they were ‘illegal’ because of a lack of official paperwork, although some of the paperwork was destroyed by the Home Office.

The current concerns are for people are being deported during a pandemic. Carol Momo, who previously worked in an immigration center in Heathrow said: “There is a lot of abuse happening to the detainees. The management don’t like it when people speak up.”

The Home Office has described the men as “dangerous foreign criminals,” comments which have raises human right concerns by activists and immigration lawyers.

Jacqueline McKenzie, an immigration lawyer who won a humanitarian award for the work she has done with Windrush victims said: "The criminal justice and immigration system and the law must be reformed. “Only then will we get justice for families suffering as a result of the Windrush scandal, deportations, family separation and more.”

These comments have been proven by research done by the Sentencing Council. It has been reported that black men were 1.4 times more likely than white men to receive sentences for drug offences. It is estimated on the current scheduled charter flight there are six people who have been sentenced for drug offences.

The Home Office Hostile “Environment” policy has been accused of not complying with equality law. Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has been accused of bullying, is being asked by many Jamaican nationals to resign from her post.