Group of Women Fight to Help Families Ripped Apart by Home Office Deportation Policy

The UK Home Office will not review the forced separation of black British families caught up in the criminal justice system.

Under a law created 13 years ago, individuals who are not British can automatically be deported if they receive a custodial sentence of more than 12 months. The policy has seen hundreds of people put on charter flights to Jamaica, leaving their British family behind.

Critics have warned that this causes significant harm to children. The Home Office has refused to officially investigate the impact of deportations on minors and families.

A group of women, including mothers, wives, sisters, parents and aunts are campaigning for the effect on children to be formally assessed in cases of mandatory repatriation. Many of the members of this group include descendants of the Windrush generation.

A statement released by Families for Justice says:

“Our children have been professionally neglected and inexplicably made to feel unwelcome in the country we call home. Our children’s British birthrights have been disregarded. We are saddened about the systematic disregard for the mental health of our children and the unassessed separation they are put through.”

When the group wrote to the Home Office minister Kevin Foster on Windrush day last June to complain about the “this law tearing apart British families and communities”, they did not receive a response.

Bella Sankey, who is the director of the campaign group Detention Action, said:

“The cruelty of separating children from loving parents, without hearing their views and carefully assessing their needs, is abundantly clear. Priti Patel talks constantly of protecting the British public: why are these children not included in her efforts?”

One Case of Many

One particularly difficult case is that of Freya Roberts’ family. Both her twin brothers face being deported to different countries, despite being born in London. Darrel Roberts, 24, has been informed that he will be deported to the Dominican Republic, and Darren has been warned that he will face deportation to Grenada.

Both brothers were taken into care aged 13 after their mother died from cancer and the uncle who was looking after them also died.

Roberts said:

“This has proven to me the continued systemic racism not only from the government’s immigration policies, but also the local councils, mental health services and other statutory services within the UK who have failed my brothers and many people like them.” The brothers were taken into care aged 13 after the deaths from cancer of their mother and then the uncle who had looked after them when she died.

She went on to say:

“The council then failed in supporting my brothers at regularising their immigration status or even informing them of their precarious situation and the seriousness of it. They failed my brothers in not making them aware of their rights as British people, and as descendants of Windrush”.

In response, a Home Office spokesperson said:

“Foreign dangerous criminals who violate our laws and abuse our hospitality have no place in our country. The UK only ever returns those who the Home Office and, where applicable, the courts are satisfied do not need our protection and have no legal basis to remain. In December, the courts once again considered our approach to removals and the impact on children, and found it to be lawful.”

Hundreds of people have been put on deportation flights to Jamaica over the past 13 months. [Image credit: Free Movement]

People protesting against deportation charter flights. [Image credit: https://www.voice-online.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/25/movement-for-justice-yes-it-is-racist-stop-the-flight/]