Several Jamaicans now on deportation flight, despite UK court ruling
Published:Tuesday | February 11, 2020 | 12:00 AM
Seventeen to 20 Jamaicans are being deported from London to Kingston this morning despite a last-minute court challenge in the United Kingdom.
The deportees have all been convicted on a range of offences and served time in UK prisons.
Another 20 or so should have been on the charter flight expected to land at the Norman Manley International Airport at 12:30 p.m today.
However, in a last-minute decision, the UK Appeal Court yesterday ruled that the Jamaicans should not be deported unless it could be satisfied that while in detention, they had been given functioning cellphone SIM cards before February 3, so that they could have contacted their lawyers.
Court deals blow to UK Gov't's deportation plans for Jamaicans
There were calls for the UK government to delay sending home the Jamaicans before the release of a report into the Windrush scandal.
The BBC reports that a leaked draft of the report said the government should consider ending deportation of foreign-born offenders who went to the UK as children.
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