The Home Office has gone ahead and deported 17 non “British” nationals who have been convicted of serious crimes to Jamaica, 25 were removed at the last minute as campaigners won a court victory.
On Monday the Home Office lost the ruling to deport more than 50 people to Jamaica as a judge said some of those detained did not have access to legal advice.
The charity Detention Action told judge, Lady Justice Simlerat the High Court of Appeal those detained at Colnbrooke and Harmondsworth centres did not have functioning mobile phones.
They successfully argued that the detainees had issues with their phones as there was issues with the nearby O2 phone mast, preventing them from accessing legal advice.
The judge 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.”
The home secretary Priti Patel said on Monday many of those on board were guilty of “serious offences,” including rape and dealing class A drugs.
All those on the flight had “received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more” and under the legislation the Labour government introduced in 2007, Patel said, “a deportation order must be made.”
Sajid Javid the chancellor told Sky News Kay Burley those being thrown out of the UK are “not British” and are guilty of serious criminal offences such as manslaughter, rape and dealing class A drugs.
He said, “Every single person on the flight is a foreign national offender.
“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 12 months.”
On Tuesday, the Home Office said, “We make no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders.
“The court ruling does not apply to all of the foreign national offenders due to be deported and we have therefore proceeded with the flight.”
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