KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has decried the mass deportation of Jamaicans who have been living in the United Kingdom for several years.
The Guardian, a British national daily newspaper, yesterday reported that protesters gathered outside the Jamaican high commission in south-west London to demonstrate against Jamaica’s cooperation with a deportation flight Wednesday morning.
The Unity Centre, a Glasgow-based migration support collective, said in a statement that it has spoken to more than 50 of the passengers booked on the flight, all of who came to the UK as children but have failed to regularise their immigration status, the UK newspaper reported.
Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Dr Morais Guy today called on the Government to indicate how long it has been aware of this current process and whether the Government is satisfied that due process has been followed for those being deported.
“I am particularly concerned about the Jamaican authorities in Britain issuing emergency certificates for those Jamaicans, who by virtue of length of the time they have lived in the UK, would not have any Jamaican passport,” he said in a release.
According to The Guardian, mothers, fathers and grandparents are among those due to be forcibly removed from the UK to Jamaica despite many of them having spent their entire adult lives in Britain. In some cases they are still fighting their immigration cases, activists said.
Guy also expressed concern for people who had filed appeals against their deportations and are yet to have their appeals heard.