A planned deportation flight to Jamaica has left UK airspace as convicted drug dealers and rapists and other persistent offenders are ejected from the country.
The Home Office lost a court ruling yesterday after a judge announced that some detainees ‘did not have proper access to legal advice’.
A spokesman for the Home Office said:
“We make no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders.
“The court ruling does not apply to all of the foreign national offenders due to be deported, and we are therefore proceeding with the flight.”
The exact number of convicts on the flight is not known, but a statement released by the government suggests that it has complied with the court ruling.
A spokesperson for the government said that those who have been deported had been convicted of serious offences including manslaughter, rape, violent crime and dealing Class-A drugs.
Lady Justice Simler ordered the Home Office not to remove anyone “unless satisfied (they) had access to a functioning, non-O2 SIM card on or before 3rd February”.
They should make it that if any immigrant commit a crime that has a prison sentence over 3 months,gets an automatic deportation from the country, no matter how long they have been in the country