Public outcry over further deportations of Jamaicans from UK

Edited by Ed Newman
2021-08-11 20:40:46

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Protesters demanding justice for the Windrush generation in June 2019. Changes to the scheme have resulted in claims being processed more quickly, but many are still without recompense. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Rex/Shutterstock

London, August 11 (RHC)-- The UK government is deporting another group of people of Jamaican descent back to the Caribbean country, which has caused an outcry among migrant rights advocates saying the move is unfair and politically motivated.

Moreover, immigrant rights groups, such as the Movement for Justice, say the move is a reversal of an earlier agreement between the UK and Jamaican governments not to deport people who arrived in the UK as minors.

Jacqueline McKenzie, with the Leigh Day and Windrush Justice Project said: "These are not people who should be deported, I deal very often with people who have lived in the country as children, or who have lived here for a very, very, long time, or have been convicted of offences that aren't at the most serious end of the offenses."

She noted that some of those being deported are believed to be relatives of the Windrush generation, citizens of the British Empire who travelled to Britain between 1948 and 1973 after the government called on its colonies to send workers to help rebuild the country after World War Two.

Jacqueline McKenzie noted that the migrants arrived in the 1950s.  "Their ancestors have already been through slavery and colonialism and neocolonialism and governorships and all sorts of awful systems that have always placed them as second class citizens.  Now they are in the UK and are still treated as second class citizens."

Last year, 50 Britons of Jamaican descent were also forcibly removed, many of whom grew up in the UK.  The hashtag #Jamaica_50 is still trending.

People watching see the way that this government holds in such disrespect the contribution of West Indian, Caribbean, and Black people in this country.  When, when, will Black Lives Matter, once again?



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