THE government has organised another charter flight mass deportation to Jamaica, one year after the last one.  

This is the second such charter flight since the Windrush scandal was widely exposed, targeting Caribbean communities.  

This is expected to take place on February 11— which coincidentally, is the 30th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from Victor Vester prison — the second such flight to Jamaica since the Windrush scandal was fully exposed.  

My organisation BARAC UK  and others who founded the Movement Against Xenophobia in 2012 were forewarning of it years before.

Forced deportations of any kind are inhumane but this type of wholesale deportation of people in large numbers — up to 50 people can be deported in one go — reeks of racism.

The government targets people who are fully complying with Home Office requirements of signing in weekly/fortnightly at immigration reporting centres, nearly all of them people who are going through appeals, seeking asylum or seeking to regulate their immigration status.  

Like the charter flight in 2019 and in 2016, those targeted include people who have spent the majority of their lives in Britain. Many came as children to join parents and grandparents and are parents and in lots of cases even grandparents themselves, people with British partners and children.

The process of removal is brutal and impacts on whole families who are torn apart. They are detained with no notice, either when signing in or during night raids of their home.  

I received an account of a dad being taken in front of his 10-year-old daughter who was barred from calling her mum and had her bag searched and her mobile phone taken from her.

In another case a young boy with sickle cell anaemia witnessed his mother taken in the middle of the night and the shock made him ill and he had to be rushed to hospital.  

We have also heard that immigration officers have been knocking on doors informing they are looking to detain further people and place them on the deportation flight as late as Thursday.

Once detained, people are taken to removal centres with conditions that are worse than prisons, without inadequate heating or facilities, personal smart phones are taken and there have been reports of vermin.  

Over the past week there have been complaints by those detained in a number of removal centres and their case workers, families and legal representatives that the phone lines are down. I have experienced this directly.

At a crucial time as people are being served removal and refusal notices days before the deportation flight they are being denied access to justice, advice, support and what could be for some their final contact with loved ones.

This is currently being legally challenged.

One man, who had managed to keep an alternative sim card, was able to put this in the Home Office issued phone he had and speak with me. He reported that there was a single landline in an office that people had to crowd into and queue for hours with no privacy to make any kind of call.

Over the past few days those detained reported that they were issued a removal notice and rejection of appeal with the same identical written reason given to each of them for the refusal. They all state that they do not have enough family ties within the UK which is not true as these are all people with partners they have been with for years or decades, children, in some cases grandchildren or parents, siblings and grandparents. There is no consideration for their personal circumstances.  

The government is trying to claim that all of those targeted are ex-offenders and that there is no link to the Windrush scandal.  

However, it is evident that some of those targeted for removal on the forthcoming charter flight as with previous ones, have been criminalised by virtue of their immigration status and for those who have previously received a custodial sentence, their deportation creates a triple punishment.

No British-born person who had been punished for a crime, served their time and been rehabilitated would then face a second punishment by being detained and a third punishment of deportation.  

Some had previously been given indefinite leave to remain in the UK as children, only for this to be breached. The vast majority of those who have served time in prison, are not hardened criminals but people who made mistakes, who have been punished for their crimes, who have turned their lives around, worked, contributed to the economy and to society.  

There are a number of reasons that the flight should not go ahead.

Given the Windrush scandal and the failure of the government to adequately compensate victims (with the vast majority receiving no compensation to date), for the heartache and devastation they have endured because they were targeted for detention and deportations, there should be no deportations at this time.

It is incorrect for the government to claim they are not Windrush related. The Windrush generation came to Britain to work, to help the country recover post WWII, they faced horrific racism, threats and a colour bar in the labour market, sub-standard housing in the face of the “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs” signs.

They worked hard, saved money and could only send for their children and other family in stages. All of those being targeted now for deportation would not be here if it were not for the direct link they have here through Windrush generation parents or grandparents and if not because of the legacy of colonialism.

Some of those targeted include people who have served in the British armed forces — British when it suited the government but deemed undesirable and illegal when they had been used in active service then cast aside with injuries and post-traumatic stress.

Some are young people disproportionately stopped and searched because of racial profiling and deported without ever being arrested or going through the criminal justice system.

There should be no such deportations in light of the injustice still facing Caribbean communities and families in Britain because of the Windrush scandal. There are still people who were exiled from Britain, who lost their homes and jobs, people who have been detained repeatedly for years leaving their families destitute, people who are experiencing physical and mental health conditions and no financial compensation.

Some have lost their lives. The injustice has impacted not just on those of the Windrush generation but their entire families, many of whom have had to give up work because they have lost a carer, who have become destitute, who have had to set aside their own hopes and aspirations to fight for justice for a family member and much more.

The reality is if it were not for the history of British colonialism and enslavement, those now targeted for deportation and the families they came to join would not be in Britain in the first place.  

Let us not forget that the government ordered the destruction of landing cards for those of the Windrush generation who came to the UK.

Justice for the Windrush generation cannot just be about financial compensation for those directly targeted of that generation but for restorative justice, an end to discrimination, human rights, dignity and equality for their entire families and future generations making their lives in Britain.

The problem with phones being down for days at detention centres denying people access to lawyers.

The fact that the Windrush Lessons Learned report has not even been published let alone any recommendations actioned — it is a year overdue now.

On Thursday the report was leaked and it was reported on BBC Newsnight that it recommends that the deportation of national offenders who came to Britain as children be ended.

We know that many of those booked on the flight as with previous ones did come to Britain as children.

We also know because of institutional racism in policing and the criminal justice system that black people receive harsher treatment and sentencing.

Given the blanket refusal notices people have received there is clearly no consideration for individual circumstances, evidence and previous legal rulings concerning their cases so we can have no faith that they are being deported with due regard and consideration of the law and their human rights.   

We have consistently maintained both as human rights and grassroots community campaigners, but also within the trade union movement — with both the TUC black workers conference and my union PCS calling for an independent public inquiry into the Windrush scandal — that there should be no deportations until this happens and recommendations are implemented.

On Thursday night Barac UK and BAME Lawyers for Justice organised an emergency protest to oppose the flight and the wider injustice of the government’s hostile environment including the failure to make compensation accessible to all the families impacted by the brutality of the Windrush scandal.  

This took place on Whitehall opposite Downing Street and was attended by approximately 250 people bringing traffic to a standstill. We were joined by MPs Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Florence Eshalomi and Claudia Webbe plus a range of community, campaigning groups, trade unions and families of those impacted by the hostile environment and deportations.

People were quite rightly very angry at how the Caribbean community continues to be treated by the British government and called for the charter flight to be halted for all the reasons I have listed above.

The protest was covered by a wide range of mainstream press and was broadcast immediately after on BBC Newsnight.

We call on readers to write to their MPs and contact the Home Secretary urgently calling for the flight to be halted. Please follow @baracuk on Twitter, BARAC UK on Facebook and access briefings and updates via our web: www.blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com

Zita Holbourne is national chair of BARAC UK, national vice-president of the PCS union and joint national chair of Artists Union England.
 
Please sign the following petitions:

https://www.change.org/p/stop-all-charter-flight-mass-deportations-to-jamaica-other-commonwealth-countries https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-conduct-an-independent-public-inquiry-into-the-windrush-scandal  
https://www.change.org/p/british-airways-stop-helping-the-home-office-deport-people  
https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-conduct-an-independent-public-inquiry-into-the-windrush-scandal