‘Summer of Deportations’
This summer, the Home Office is proceeding with a series of mass deportations flights, tearing people out of their homes and away from their families and communities. Many won’t have been to the country they are being deported to for many years, and some will be deported to countries where their lives may be endangered. The continuous cuts to legal aid mean that many are denied the legal representation they need to challenge their deportation. This is a clear violation of human rights and cannot be ignored.
On the 21st July, a deportation flight left for Zimbabwe with 14 people on board. This is around a third of the number the Home Office had intended to deport. Some of those due to be deported were not placed on the flight, due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Brook House detention centre. Removal centres have seen a number of COVID outbreaks, demonstrating the risk of the overcrowded and inadequate conditions for the health and wellbeing of residents (1). As increasing numbers of people are being placed into removal centres in advance of this summer of chartered deportation flights, these outbreaks are only set to worsen.
There were also several successful legal challenges due to safety concerns for those being deported, given Zimbabwe’s poor record on human rights (2). Many of those at risk of deportation have been politically active against the Zimbabwean government, which would put them at high risk if they were to return. Distressingly, two detainees due to be deported threw themselves from a second floor landing in Colnbrook immigration centre just hours before the chartered flight. Although they are reported not to have been harmed, and were subsequently not placed on the flight, this highlights the extreme distress inflicted upon those in immigration detention and threatened with deportation. Recent reports have revealed high numbers of people seeking asylum on constant suicide watch at Brook House removal centre (3), confirming once again the inhumanity and cruelty of British immigration detention and deportation.
On the 28th July, another chartered deportation flight left for Vietnam, with 21 people believed to have been on board. A number of those individuals are believed to have been part of the so-called ‘voluntary returns’ scheme (4), an exploitative and coercive system which targets people in the UK immigration system with financial incentives to return to their home country. They are often targeted during their time in immigration detention, when they are likely distressed and unable to access the legal and emotional support they may need. The flight was chartered by TUI, who have collaborated with the Home Office in the past. Click here to sign an open letter to TUI, calling for the end to their involvement.
There is another deportation flight scheduled to Jamaica on 11th August - we already know of at least 11 people who have been detained in advance of this (5). At least two are known to have arrived in the UK as children, and have indefinite leave to remain. This is a clear violation of the Home Office’s previous agreement not to deport those who arrived in Britain under the age of 12 (6). Some of these individuals due to be deported have no family in Jamaica, and have British-born children who they will be separated from. The risks to those deported to Jamaica are known to be high - between March 2018 and 2019, 5 men were killed following their removal from the UK (7). One man due to be deported on the upcoming flight, whose cousin was killed following deportation two years ago, is understandably terrified and is reported to be suicidal (8).
Other deportations are also planned to Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana over the coming weeks.
The government is deliberately labelling these people as ‘dangerous foreign criminals’, in an attempt to convince the public that they constitute a significant threat to Britain. This is a dangerous and misleading claim. These chartered flights deport individuals who have been jailed for at least 12 months for a single offence, including driving offences and non-violent crimes. Moreover, irrespective of the crime committed, deportation constitutes a double punishment, as they have already served their prison sentences, and many have never reoffended. Given the inherently racist policing and criminal justice systems in Britain, that mean that Black people are significantly more likely to be arrested, charged and given longer sentences, this is a highly flawed and problematic system. Considering that BAME defendants have a 240% higher chance of receiving a prison sentence for drug offences compared to their white counterparts, just one example of the extreme disparity and injustice in sentencing, chartered flights are part of a highly racialized criminal justice system in Britain (9).
On top of this, recent data has confirmed that there is a clear racially disproportionate targeting of individuals for deportation, with those from Britain’s former colonies in West Africa and the Caribbean at some of the highest risks of deportation (10). On average, 65% of overseas nationals jailed for over 12 months are deported, yet this rises to 75% for Jamaican nationals, 76% for Ghanaian nationals, and 90% for Nigerian nationals.
Similarly high rates of deportation were also identified for Vietnamese nationals, at 84%, and Albanian nationals, at 90%. This is highly concerning, given the high rates of human trafficking from both Vietnam and Albania, highlighting the British government’s clear disregard for the welfare of trafficking victims.
This ramping up of deportations is set to get worse, with the new Nationality and Borders Bill likely to pass. This will mean that some individuals will likely be fast-tracked for deportation, with little time for legal appeal. In addition, the Bill intends to withhold visas from countries that fail to cooperate with removals. These diplomatic negotiations between the UK and other states are central to these deportation flights being able to go ahead.
We have to take action against the summer of deportations planned.
BARAC UK have launched a petition against charter flight deportations to Jamaica and other Commonwealth countries, click here to sign. They have also produced a template letter to send to your MP, which can be accessed here. We have written more about the immigration bill here.
(2) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/22/legal-bids-mean-uk-deportation-flight-to-zimbabwe-takes-off-just-one-third-full
(9) The Lammy Review, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lammy-review-final-report
