More than 170 MPs have written to the Prime Minister to urge him to stop the deportation of 50 people to Jamaica tomorrow (February 11).
The calls from the MPs come after a leaked report suggested the government is considering halting the deportation of foreign-born offenders who came to the UK as children.
According to the Home Office, those scheduled to be deported to Jamaica tomorrow are criminals but those challenging the measure say some of the deportees were as young as five years old when they arrived in the UK.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, organised a letter to Boris Johnson calling for deportations to be stopped until a report on the Windrush scandal is released.
Whittome recently said: “The fact is that many of the individuals in question have lived in the UK since they were children and at least 41 British children are now at risk of losing their fathers through this charter flight.
“The government risks repeating the mistakes of the Windrush scandal unless it cancels this flight and others like it until the Windrush Lessons Learned Review has been published and its recommendations implemented.”
Boris Johnson responded to Nadia Whittome’s comments last week, saying: “The people of this country will think it right to send back foreign national offenders.”
In the letter to the PM from over 170 cross-party MPs, they say: “Not only is there an unacceptable risk of removing anyone with a potential Windrush claim, but there has been a failure by the government to remedy the causes of the Windrush scandal.”
“It is, therefore, crucial that all further deportations are cancelled until the long-awaiting Lessons Learned Review is published, and its recommendations implemented.”
The deportation of 50 people to Jamaica is scheduled to leave tomorrow.