Priti Patel is furious that campaigners are daring to challenge deportation flights

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Home secretary Priti Patel has called comments from campaigners who linked the deportation of Black people to Jamaica “deeply offensive” because they linked it to the Windrush scandal. Said scandal involved the deportation of Black people to Jamaica.

The government has defended the action as it claims those deported are criminals with no right to be in the UK. Campaigners argue there should be no deportations until “justice has been delivered for all Commonwealth Windrush victims”.

Thirteen prisoners were deported to Jamaica in a flight on 2 December, but lawyers successfully moved to have another 23 removed from the aircraft’s passenger list, with their cases now under review.

Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is among campaigners opposing the deportations (Ian West/PA)

Justice

Model Naomi Campbell and actress Thandie Newton were among more than 90 high profile figures who signed an open letter last week to several airlines calling on them to refuse to provide deportation flights for the prisoners.

The letter said in part:

Read on...

Until justice has been delivered for all Commonwealth Windrush victims, any deportations to Commonwealth countries risk further unlawful removals of Windrush generation members or Windrush descendants who may have the right to remain in the UK but do not yet have the required paperwork.

Labour’s immigration spokesman Holly Lynch has led MPs’ opposition to the deportations, telling the Commons on 30 November the full consequences of the Windrush scandal had not yet been established.

She added:

With that in mind, what assessment has been made to ensure that none of those scheduled to be on the flight are eligible under the Windrush scheme, or have been affected by the wider immigration injustices that impacted the victims of the Windrush scandal?

“Wronged”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the home secretary was critical of the campaigners trying to link the cases of the “vile criminals” scheduled for deportation to the Windrush scandal that her party oversaw:

The Windrush scandal is a stain on our country’s history. That generation made an enormous contribution to our country and were wronged by successive governments.

To see ill-informed Labour politicians and do-gooding celebrities attempting to conflate the victims of Windrush with these vile criminals set for deportation is not only misjudged and upsetting but deeply offensive.

Patel said the government would “never stand in solidarity with rapists and murderers” and was “committed to removing these foreign criminals from our country” as they had violated British laws and had no right to remain in the country.

The Home Office scheduled similar deportations of “criminals” in February 2020. At the time, campaigners disputed the government’s claims about the people it targeted. One person it attempted to deport was a young autistic man with developmental issues who was convicted under the controversial joint enterprise law. This meant he was convicted for a crime that he did not commit.

The Windrush scandal began to emerge in 2017, revealing Caribbean migrants with a right to live in the UK were wrongfully detained or expelled by the Conservative government.

MP portraits
Labour MP Holly Lynch has campaigned against the deportations in Parliament (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)

Tight-lipped

The Home Office insisted none of the offenders amid the 36 Jamaican individuals were eligible for the Windrush compensation scheme. But it would not say whether any had immediate relatives who were from the Windrush generation.

The department said all 36 originally due to be on board the flight were Jamaican citizens and none had been born in the UK. It would not say whether any had lived in the country since they were children.

Chris Philp, minister for immigration compliance, said the flight which left the UK in the early hours of 2 December had removed 13 “serious foreign criminals”.

Some of the other Jamaicans due to be on board were granted a last-minute reprieve after fresh asylum and modern slavery claims were made.

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  • Show Comments
    1. Funny that you didn’t mention that convicted murderers and rapists are among those ‘saved’ by these fantastic celebrities, rather quoting Patel as if she’s exaggerating. Yet again the Canary cosying up to liberal elites telling the rest of us what is wrong and right. Since when do the left listen to multi millionaire privileged elitists? Oh, yeah, the left is the home of the liberal, champagne socialist.
      Naomi Campbell is a violent criminal herself with four convictions for assault so no surprise she’s sticking up for fellow criminals.

    2. Well following this logic then any white Criminals of European background who may be citizens of the UK since 3 and at the age of 21 would have spent 2/3rds of their life living as a Brit, is also relevant if they became afoul of the law, and they too should be summarily deported. Even though these black men have spent the majority of their lives in Britain in the education system and enveloped in British culture. They are Not seen as British. Regardless, as children their families contributed to the British tax system and British society and British growth. Seems to me that zeroing in on Blacks of Jamaican decent is in of itself targeted racism. After all Brits supported slavery until they didn’t. Perhaps the brow beating, racist views of others and racist targeting by a woman of Indian descent is just three paint strokes of the bigger picture. Perhaps unemployment, holding down opportunities based on background is also in of itself a recognition of British failure and historical racism. The 200 year rule and subjugation of India and assimilation of Indians into British society amplifies the British stain of others and racial targeting against blacks. Remember Indians were placed in a higher rung of humans than blacks by Brits. I challenge you to think about the British distain for others like Australians, Canadians, for eg. They’re white anglos but not British and therefore still subject in the minds of Brits. Inferior. Because these Jamaicans are not white anglos, or white,
      they too, to this day are subordinate to British Exceptionalism. I say look at yourself and say you’re not racist before you disparage others who by longevity in Britain are in fact British. A piece of paper doesn’t make you British living in Britain for 2/3rds if your life. Their families laboured and their contributions to Britain society for a better life for themselves and their children should not be meaningless.

    3. “Priti Patel”; Probably the two most deeply offensive words in the English language!
      AS well as being palably untrue; “Ugly Patel” would be more appropriate! She must the be the most offensive person in politics since Titus Oates! Or Lord Gordon! Or even Oswald Moseley! I bet she’s got more black shirts in her wardrobe than Horatio Caine! She probably practices in front of a mirror shouting “….BUT IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE FUHRER!” I bet Theresa Gorman phones her just so she can shout “FASCIST!” at her! Want to cure youself of “hair-trigger trouble”? Just imagine her wrestling naked in Swarfega with Edwina Currie, or on second thoughts, don’t, too late, I just did, oh no, Aaaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh1

    4. You that have smart phones and use either Siri or Alexa, must ask yourselves what they are passing onto Bojo and his crooked Cabinet? Thankfully, I don’t have a smart phone but my comments on them are online for all to see. Every conversation you have IS being listened to. Ask them this question: “Alexa/Siri, do you work for the British government?” Then imagine what Not-so-priti-patel would say on what she had heard!

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