MORE THAN 60 MPs and peers have signed a letter to the home secretary calling for a deportation flight scheduled to leave the UK for Jamaica on Wednesday to be cancelled.

MPs Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Kate Osamor, Claudia Webbe and Dawn Butler are all among those who have signed the letter, which has been coordinated by Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South.

In the letter, which was sent to Priti Patel today, the cross-party group of politicians express their concern about the scheduled charter flight.

The planned deportation of up to 50 Black British residents to the Caribbean country has attracted widespread criticism.

“We are still in the midst of a global pandemic. If this charter flight goes ahead, children will be forced apart from their parents, and they my not even get a chance to say goodbye,” the letter states.

It adds: “Deportations epitomise the government’s continued ‘Hostile Environment’ agenda. Not only is this agenda unjust, but also the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has now found that the Home Office broke the law with its series of hostile environment policies and inhumane treatment of the Windrush generation.”

Today’s letter from the MPs and peers comes after 82 black public figures, including David Olusoga and Naomi Campbell, wrote to airlines who have operated deportation charter flights and urged them not to carry out the flight.

Anti-deportation activists have long campaigned against the Home Office’s use of deportation charter flights.

Grassroots group BARACK UK has today published a separate letter it sent to the home secretary calling on her to cancel the flight immediately, calling it “unjust” and “racist”.

The letter, which has been signed by more than 60 lawyers, NGOs and community organisations, states: “Several of the men facing imminent deportation are the descendants of the Windrush generation, and have been present in the United Kingdom for decades.”

Karen Doyle, a Movement for Justice National Organiser supported the MP’s writing the letter, but added: “If Black Lives Matter is to mean anything it has to mean systemic change to historic and current racial injustice. The racism embedded in the British immigration system led to the Windrush scandal.

However, she said “fundamental change” required a sustained, independent, community-led mass movement that tackled all the injustices of a racist immigration system.

Home Office Minister Chris Phillip, speaking in the House of Commons today said: “This charter flight to Jamaica is specifically to remove foreign born criminals. The offences committed by individuals on this flight include sexual assault against children, murder, rape, drug dealing and violent crime. 

“This flight is about criminality, not nationality.”

The minister emphasised that the flight had nothing to do with the “terrible wrongs” faced by the Windrush generation. 

He also claimed that not a single individual on the flight was eligible for the Windrush scheme, and pointed out that none of them were born in the United Kingdom.

He added: “It is a longstanding government policy that any foreign national offender will be considered for deportation.”

He pointed out that this legislation was brought in under a Labour government. 

The minister added that a very small minority of all enforced returns were to Jamaica, and that many were to other European countries.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals to keep the public safe.

“Each week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here, this flight is no different.”