Home Office urged to avoid possible repeat of Windrush injustices with looming charter flight deportation

Labour MP Holly Lynch said the grandson of a Windrush generation descendant has already been deported and pointed to reports at least one other is detained and due on the flight to Jamaica.

A woman gathers for a Windrush generation solidarity protest in Brixton, 20 April, 2018 (EPA-EFE)

Labour’s shadow immigration secretary has written to the Home Office urging them not to repeat injustices that befell the Windrush generation amid plans for a mass deportation flight to Jamaica on Wednesday.

Holly Lynch said the grandson of a Windrush generation descendant has already been deported and pointed to reports at least one other is detained and due on the plane.

The Labour MP added “details of others” are emerging and warned that the “injustices of the Windrush scandal can never happen again." 

She said: 'As you will be aware, members of the Windrush generation were deported illegally in recent years, while being denied access to healthcare, housing and access to employment.

“This scandal rightly led to commitments from the government to change course.”

It comes as a host of celebrities and activists, including actress Thandie Newton and supermodel Naomi Campbell, have called on airlines not to operate the mass deportation flight.

In an open letter, addressed to the bosses of multiple airlines including Hi Fly, Titan Airways and TUI UK and Ireland, more than 90 high-profile figures, campaigners and activists have urged the companies to decline to operate the flight.

They are also calling for a pause on the operation of future deportation flights to Commonwealth countries.

The letter, which includes Metropolitan Police superintendent Leroy Logan among its signatories, says the planned deportation of "up to 50 people" risks the "unlawful and wrongful removal of people who have the right to remain in the UK." 

It highlighted the ongoing Windrush saga as a primary reason why the flight is "wholly inappropriate".

A report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission this week found the Home Office failed to comply with equality law when implementing "hostile environment" immigration measures, contributing to serious injustices faced by the Windrush generation.

According to the authors of the letter, the report's findings "call into question the Home Office's competency to deal with the continuing injustices it has created.

"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."

The letter claims one of the men deported to Jamaica in a flight in February "was the grandson of a woman who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush and is still seeking to have his deportation order revoked".

It adds some of the people due to be deported are believed to have been in the UK since childhood, while others are at "grave risk" of harm if they are removed from the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals to keep the public safe.

"Each week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here, this flight is no different.

"The people being detained for this flight include convicted murderers and rapists."