A planned deportation flight to Jamaica is understood to have gone ahead less than half full after a last-minute court victory by campaigners.
The Home Office lost the ruling yesterday after a judge said some of the detainees had not been able to get proper access to legal advice.
Chancellor Sajid Javid told Sky News’ Kay Burley that those being kicked out were “not British” and were guilty of serious offences such as rape and drug dealing.
Mr Javid said he did not know the exact number on the flight but he believed it was “around – or above 50.
Around people were understood to have been originally set for deportation.
Campaigners say some of the people affected have lived in the UK since they were children, committed one-time offences when they were young and have no links with Jamaica.
“Every single person on the flight is a foreign national offender,” said Mr Javid.
“They are not British, they are not members of the Windrush generation and they are all guilty of serious crimes, receiving custodial sentences of at least months. ”
The chancellor said they were guilty of offences such as manslaughter, rape and dealing class A drugs.
The charity Detention Action said it believed some of those due for deportation were not on board because of the court victory.
Monday’s Court of Appeal ruling came after lawyers said some detainees could not get access to legal advice because of problems with an O2 phone mast near the detention centers.
They were being held at two facilities near Heathrow airport.
Lady Justice Simler ordered the Home Office not to remove anyone “unless satisfied (they) had access to a functioning, non-O2 SIM card on or before 3 February”.
More than 365 politicians had also written to the prime minister calling on him to stop the deportation until a report is published on the lessons learned from the windrush scandal
that scandal involved people originally from the caribbean – who had legally been in the UK for decades – being denied access to services, held in detention or removed.
Last year, 2019 convicted criminals were deported to Jamaica on the first deportation flight since Windrush.
The Home Office previously said that under the UK Borders Act , a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of months or more.
Possible exceptions include where this would breach human rights or the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention.
Read More
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings