The Jamaica government says the 13 nationals deported from the United Kingdom earlier this week “were removed pursuant to having met the criteria for removal as set out in the UK Borders Act of 2007”.
In a joint statement, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. Horace Change and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson-Smith, confirmed that a charter flight with the 13 Jamaican born Involuntarily Returned Migrants (IRMs) arrived at the Normal Manley International Airport from the United Kingdom on Wednesday.
“The return of the IRMs is a routine process that is guided by agreements between Jamaica and our bilateral partner countries. The government is mindful of the heightened sensitivities in respect of IRMs from the UK in particular.
“For this reason, diplomatic engagements between the Jamaican and UK governments have always sought to ensure that the process is one that takes into account these sensitivities and in particular any remaining legal processes that could provide for exemptions for any of those persons,” the joint statement noted.
It said that the information available to the Jamaica government is that the IRMs were allowed to exhaust all legal remedies and recourse available to them prior to their departure.
“This resulted in only 13 IRMs being returned to Jamaica… notwithstanding the larger number of persons initially proposed. We are informed that no Windrush victims or persons eligible for compensation under the Windrush Scheme were included among those removed and that factors such as the right to family life and issues around trafficking in persons, which the Government of Jamaica also takes seriously, were taken into account.”
In April 2018, the United Kingdom government apologised for deportation threats made to children of Commonwealth citizens in what had been dubbed the “Windrush scandal”.
These citizens despite living and working in the UK for decades, many were told they were there illegally because of a lack of official paperwork. Since then, reports and compensation schemes have been launched, but some people are concerned that not enough has been done.
People arriving in the UK between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries have been labelled the Windrush generation. It refers to the ship MV Empire Windrush, which docked in Tilbury on 22 June 1948, bringing workers from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands, to help fill post-war UK labour shortages.
In the joint statement, the senior Jamaica government ministers said that from a humanitarian perspective, an agreement was also reached with the UK government that no one who arrived in the UK before the age of 12 years would be among the persons removed on this flight.
“The Government of Jamaica continues to encourage Jamaicans overseas to abide by the laws of their country of residence and to have their immigration status regularized if they wish to remain permanently in those countries.
“At the same time, we also have an obligation to receive Jamaican citizens who fail to meet the criteria for remaining in those countries. It is in this context that we also receive Jamaicans who are removed from other countries. The charter flights from the United Kingdom are no different.”
The government says it remains committed to the safe and orderly reintegration and rehabilitation of Jamaican nationals deported from the UK and elsewhere, and to ensuring that strengthened mechanisms are put in place to that end.
“Taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic, precautionary measures were put in place to ensure that the necessary protocols were followed, at both ends, to protect both the IRMs and the Jamaican population. This includes testing and observation of the mandatory quarantine imperatives on arrival in Jamaica,” the statement added.
CMC
