Voice of London

Protesters are demonstrating outside the Jamaican High Commission in South Kensington to challenge the Home Office over their attempt to deport people on a charter flight to Jamaica.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is preparing an attempt to send people back to Jamaica on a charter plane. This will be the fourth mass deportation to the Caribbean since the Windrush scandal.

The Home Office has defended these flights, saying they will remove convicted criminals of serious crimes from the UK and those with no right to remain.

However, campaigners and protesters – among with various university students – claim that there will be people on the flight who do not have criminal convictions.

Karen Doyle, national organiser at Movement for Justice, declared in a statement:

“The whole process of detention and mass deportation charter flights is brutal and unjust. It leads to neglect and treats people worse than animals. It puts racist deportations above human lives. We have a Home Secretary who advocates for death penalty by stealth. We must resist.”

The protest was attended by two desperate mothers fighting for their sons to stay in the UK.

For privacy-related issues, they didn’t allow us to report their real names.

However, one of them told to VoL:

“My sons are innocents. I can’t believe this is happening to us.”

The Home Office declared that this is part of their political drive towards the Nationality and Borders Bill to tackle illegal migration and attract new highly-skilled immigrants.

On the other hand, it was reported by the Jamaican High Commission that on the previous charter flight the Home Office spent £200,000 to deport just four people.

The stated objectives of the bill aims to make the asylum system fairer, deter illegal entry into the UK, and remove people with no right to stay in the country.

It also means that anyone arriving in the UK illegally could have their claim ruled as inadmissible and will have their family members barred from joining them.

A Home Office spokesperson, said in a statement:

“We reject these claims entirely. The new plan for immigration complies with all our international obligations, including under the European convention on human rights and the UN refugee convention.”

Meanwhile, RT UK explored the story of actor Ace Ruele Aristotles: a UK-born actor who faces deportation to Jamaica – despite having never lived there before.

Words: Francesco Ghanaymi

Sub-Editor: Tadhg Ormond