Removal Flight from the UK, Five Jamaicans Arrive on the Island

There are renewed concerns about the efficacy of the United Kingdom’s deportation policy as many Jamaicans were taken off a removal flight that landed on the island on Wednesday, November 10. At the eleventh hour, legal challenges were mounted and the nationals were taken off the flight.

Five Jamaican nationals in a plane with the capacity to seat 350 people arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport, (NMIA) on Wednesday morning. Images circulating on social media show anti-deportation activists blocking the road in front of a detention centre, in protest of the removal flight.

The controversial flight is the fourth of its kind to the island since the Windrush scandal in 2018. Prior to the departure of the flight Jamaican High Commissioner to the UK, Seth Ramacon raised human rights concerns. He noted that as a country we can not say to another sovereign nation that we are not accepting our own, however at the same time it must be sure that all the legal procedures are offered to the deportees.

Initially, over fifty Jamaicans were to be deported but legal challenges were mounted and that number was reduced drastically. Immigration Attorney, Jennifer Housen has taken issue with what she calls the Government’s silence in matters of human rights violations.

More in this CVM Live story from Robian Williams: