A fresh storm is brewing in the UK as the British government prepares a new round of Jamaican Windrush deportations. Over 50 Jamaicans including at least one who has been in the UK legally for 42 years, are to be sent back in shackles to Jamaica in a matter of days, reviving memories of the Windrush atrocities that came to light in 2018. The impending action has caused outrage within the Jamaican community in Britain, among political representatives of the British Labour Party and Windrush activists. Shadow Home Secretary, Jamaican Diane Abbot described the action of the Home Office as ‘brutal’ while David Lammy, MP for Tottenham is quoted as saying the deportation charter was an insult to victims of the Windrush scandal.
In defending the government’s action, Home Secretary Sajid Javid declared that foreign nationals who abuse British hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of the government’s determination to deport them. Significantly, the Home Secretary neglected to say that not all the deportees are foreign nationals. What has particularly incensed the British/Jamaicans is the feeling that the government of Jamaica at home and through its representative in London have not been sufficiently pro-active in securing the welfare of Jamaicans selected for deportation. In a Facebook post on February 3, immigration lawyer Jacqui McKenzie wrote:
“Firstly, charter flights are shrouded in secrecy. There is no adequate mechanism for ensuring that those listed on these flights are in receipt of quality and independent advice. Secondly, the very process of shackling 50 plus people, including with hand and sometimes waist restraints with each person accompanied by several guards on a 9-hour flight is dehumanizing and tantamount to torture with lifelong consequences. Thirdly, I am alarmed to hear that there is at least one person on the list with an application pending to the Windrush Task Force, another who is a former veteran who did active service for the UK in Afghanistan and who is diagnosed as suffering with PTSD and another who is blind. It is reported that 32 children will be left without fathers.”
McKenzie was part of a small group numbering about 50 demonstrators who gathered outside the Jamaican High Commission on February 4 in an attempt to present a petition to the High Commissioner George Ramocan. Refusing to meet with the protesters, High Commission staff instead summoned the police who arrived heavily armed to face the peaceful demonstrators. Huffington Post (UK) writer Nadine White later tweeted that in an interview High Commissioner Ramocan defended the stance taken by the High Commission and the Jamaican government. He is reported to have said in respect to the deportations, that Jamaica does not have the right to stand in the way of a sovereign country determining who can remain in the country. According to Ramocan his and the Jamaican government’s interest is whether the law is being upheld and justice is being served.
But for Windrush activist campaigner and former Labour Councillor, Patrick Vernon, that is simply not enough and raises the question of the sincerity of Jamaica’s concern for its people in the Diaspora. In a statement to jamaicaglobalonline.com, Vernon states:
“In light of the forthcoming charter deportation flight to Jamaica where the Home Office has failed to resolve the status of these British citizens, plus treating former veterans disgracefully, this raises the issue of how valued are the Jamaican diaspora community in the UK? Does the Jamaican government need to establish formal protection and rights for the diaspora in the UK or take direct intervention to challenge immigration policies against its former colonial master?”
It appears that in at least one case, there could be merit in some of the claims of questionable treatment of persons identified for deportation. White in her tweet also quoted High Commissioner Ramocan as saying that the High Commission was looking into cases such as Twane Morgan “and are of the view that there should be some form of compassionate approach to his circumstances.”
The deportation of Jamaicans was brought to international attention earlier in 2018 when it was revealed that several Jamaicans who had emigrated to the UK as part of the Windrush generation and who were in fact British citizens had been wrongly deported during the tenure of current Prime Minister Theresa May as Home Secretary. In the aftermath of the expose, the British government not only apologized to those illegally deported but established mechanisms for those who could establish their legitimacy to return to the UK. In addition the government committed itself to pay reparations to the victims and established a Commission to work out a mechanism for such payments. It was widely thought that further deportations would have been halted at least until the Commission had made its final recommendations on the compensation mechanism.
See Also: The Jamaican Deportation Saga: Windrush Scandal Revisited
Please Remember to Like and Share
Leave Comments below
1 comment
Are the official reasons for why these 50 persons have been designated for deportation not crucial in the matter? There is zero mention of that here.
Comments are closed.