Since March of last year, at least five deportees from the UK have been murdered in Jamaica
The killings took place after the men were sent back to Jamaica, a country with one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, despite the existence of strict rules in the UK prohibiting deportations to countries in which an individual’s life may be in danger.
According to the Home Office’s guidance on Jamaica published last March, organised criminal elements are prevalent and extremely active, while the police force is “underpaid, poorly trained, understaffed and lacking in resources”. There were 1,287 murders in Jamaica last year, a figure that represents approximately 47 per 100,000 population. The island’s police force only make arrests in 45 per cent of cases and the country has a homicide conviction rate of 7 per cent.
The UK government does not routinely monitor what happens to deportees after they leave the country and lawyers rely on the European Convention on Human Rights to argue that deportation would pose a threat to life. The victims are Owen Clarke, Dewayne Robinson, Alphonso Harriott, Paul Mitchell, and Hugh Bennett. Some of the men had convictions for violent and drug-related offences but the UK government’s human rights obligations are not dependent on past behaviour.
Human rights campaigners fear persons arriving in Jamaica on charter flights have been targeted and the revelations will increase pressure on the Home Office to justify its resumption in February of deportation flights to Jamaica after they were suspended following the Windrush scandal.
In response the Home Office released a statement repeating the official party line: persons with no legal right to remain in the UK are deported to their country of origin when the Home Office and the courts deem it safe to do so. Should the Home Office receive specific allegations that a deportee has experienced ill-treatment upon return to their country of origin, such claims would be investigated in partnership with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
