The Jamaican high commissioner has called for the suspension of deportations to Jamaica until the Home Office has published its report on the Windrush scandal.
At a meeting of relatives of people who were deported to Jamaica earlier this month held at the Jamaican high commission in London, high commissioner Seth George Ramocan said he was particularly concerned about the deportation of people who had lived in the UK since they were children and also the removal of parents with young children in Britain.
Initially 50 people were scheduled to be on the February flight, which the home secretary said included murderers and rapists. In the days and hours before the flight, around 20 people were given a last-minute reprieve and eventually only 28 men and one woman were deported. Half of those flown to Jamaica had drug convictions, while one had committed a dangerous driving offence.
Approximately 45 relatives of those deported and those who were still detained in immigration removal centres having been granted a reprieve attended the meeting which was organised with the help of Movement for Justice, an anti-deportation campaigning organisation. Family members described the trauma of seeing their loved ones deported including immigration officers arriving before dawn, kicking down doors, and forcibly removing family members to immigration detention centres. They gave first-person accounts of how their relatives had been put on the charter flight and flown out of the UK.
One common feeling was that deportees, having served time in prison, were being punished twice by being deported. The high commissioner noted that people who had lived in the UK since they were children may have little to no connection to Jamaica and was concerned about the dignity and the human rights of the individuals earmarked for deportation.
Details of the manner in which the Jamaican nationals were treated will form part of an investigation of the Jamaican government about the legitimacy of future deportations.
