A DEPORTATION flight left Birmingham airport for Jamaica during the early hours this morning with just three or four people on board, according to key campaigners.

The charter flight is likely to have cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds per person.

The controversial flight was initially meant to have 50 people on board, but after last minute legal challenges, experts believe only three or four people were eventually deported to the Caribbean country.

Speaking to The Voice, Karen Doyle, national organiser at Movement for Justice (MFJ), said: “I am only aware of three people on the flight and the plane is meant is meant to carry 350 people.”

Ms Doyle heavily criticised the deportations and claims last night, one detainee was put on a coach to be taken to the airport, despite multiple medical professionals saying he was at risk of serious health complications if he was removed. 

She said: “The Home Office was determined to remove as many people last night, regardless of the cost and the human tragedy that was unfolding.

“Charter flight deportations need to be stopped because they are fundamentally unjust in how they operate.” 

In the lead up to the flight, Ms Doyle had spoken to a total of 34 Jamaican nationals who were facing removal and said she only one of that group was put on last night’s flight to Kingston. 

This is the lowest number of people removed to Jamaica, despite the British government including Jamaican nationals who had arrived in Britain as children, which was not the case with the previous two deportations to Kingston.

Ms Doyle said that the outcome of the deportation was evidence that “our anti-deportation movement is growing and getting stronger with every flight.” 

She said those who had their tickets cancelled have “strong grounds” to stay in the UK, with many having British-born children here or arriving into Britain as children themselves. 

She called for an urgent review of the Home Office’s removal process. 

She said: “I know four people who didn’t have any criminal convictions but were caught up in this. 

“What they put people and whole communities through is torture, terror and fear and it needs to stop.” 

National Chair of BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts), Zita Holbourne, also criticised the flight and said it was “racist and inhumane”. 

Ms Holbourne told The Voice, the charter flight was an environmental and emissions hazard, which has occurred during the height of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) discussions. 

She said: “One of the detainees wanted to go and it would have been far less costly to put him on a commercial flight.

“Flying a 350-seat aircraft for five people impacts on climate change and disproportionately for the global South.”

Ms Holbourne says she is concerned that those targeted for removal are some of societies most vulnerable. 

She said`: “It’s concerning that people with serious health conditions, disabilities and those who came to the UK as children, were targeted for this flight.” 

She also acknowledged several activists, who blocked coaches leaving Brook House detention centre, yesterday afternoon, and said “their direct action prevented some removals.” 

Two previous charter flights to Jamaica sparked uproar with celebrities like author Bernardine Evaristo and model Naomi Campbell, joining the demand to cancel the plane.

The charter flight is believed to have arrived at Kingston airport shortly after 6am Jamaica time. 

The Voice has contacted the Home Office for comment.