The flight taking 13 people to Jamaica on Wednesday 2nd December and the row beforehand have proved that the racist expulsion of the children of the Windrush generation is continuing. In the House of Commons debate the minister, Chris Philp, repeatedly described black people who have spent decades in this country, going to school, working and often building families, as “foreign criminals”. It is very likely that some of these “foreigners” have a legal right to British citizenship but struggle to claim this because legal aid is now very difficult to access and the government denies there is any record of them paying tax and National Insurance. Nearly two years after the Windrush Scandal became public only 12% of claimants have received their inadequate compensation for being sacked, evicted and denied NHS treatment, and in over 160 cases detained or deported.

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The law introduced under the Labour government in 2007 enabling deportation of foreign nationals given sentences of 12 months or more is now being used to heap punishment on people deported to Jamaica: exiled from their families; exposed to Covid; at increased risk of homelessness, poverty and violence in an unfamiliar society. Some may have been forced into crime as children or been rehabilitated. People with a right to be in Britain, and living here, are the responsibility of our society and not Jamaica’s.

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The protests against this flight have been led by some 80 black public figures and 70 backbench MPs and peers. The leader of the Labour opposition, Keir Starmer, has been silent on the issue and the shadow cabinet’s response has been muted. Clive Lewis organised the protest letter from backbench MPs and a question from Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Streatham MP, led to the debate in the House of Commons.

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Wandsworth is home to a wonderfully diverse mix of communities living harmoniously together. Johnson and Patel’s racist hostile environment attacks the human rights of many local people. They describe refugees as ‘criminals’, attack their ‘lefty’ immigration lawyers, plan to deport homeless migrants and have never properly addressed the Windrush scandal.

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We call on all Wandsworth’s anti-racists to oppose deportation flights and to campaign against the government’s hostile environment.

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Wandsworth Stand Up to Racism 11.1.2021