Pre-Christmas deportation flight to Jamaica from the United Kingdom; more Jamaicans to be deported – The United Kingdom’s Home Office is planning a pre-Christmas mass deportation flight to Jamaica, this occurs as England has joined countries across Europe in entering a second Coronavirus, COVID-19 lockdown. The decision has been met with a strong backlash from civil rights organizations who are describing the process as inhumane and discriminatory, especially during a pandemic.

In February, the United Kingdom’s Government deported 17 Jamaicans on a flight it called “foreign national offenders” .Now almost 11 months later, and another chartered flight will arrive. 

The circumstances are even direr as the United Kingdom is experiencing a second wave of Coronavirus, COVID-19, recording hundreds of thousands of cases and over 55,000 deaths. Black activists rising against cuts, an advocacy group in the UK has started a campaign to stop the deportation flight.

The group’s Co-Founder Zita Holbourne says this decision in the middle of a pandemic is unimaginable. Holbourne says some of the persons being targeted for deportation have young children and others have no family in Jamaica.