News Americas, LONDON, England, Weds. Dec. 2, 2020: Twenty-eight Jamaican nationals are set to be sent back from the UK today according to the Home Office.
The number of deportees was reduced from 58 after the Home Office reached a deal with the Jamaican government not to send anyone who arrived in the UK aged younger than 12 years old.
That move came after over 80 public figures, including Jamaican roots model, Naomi Campbell, had signed a letter calling on airlines not to carry the deportees.
Home Secretary Priti Patel responded that these were “dangerous foreign criminals [who] have no place in our society” and that she was “unapologetic in my determination to remove these convicted foreign rapists, murders, and child sex offenders from our country.”
The charter flights to Jamaica are controversial because of the Windrush scandal and because some earmarked for deportation came to the UK as children and had families there.
The last charter flight to Jamaica was in February. This Wednesday, however, some 20 people are due to fly to Jamaica since none arrived in the UK before the age of 12.
A UK Home Office has said: “We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals to keep the public safe. Each week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here; this flight is no different. The people being detained for this flight include convicted murderers and rapists.”
