`Significant´ number of offenders left off deportation…

Priti Patel rages at ‘lefty lawyers’ spending the evening ‘on the phones to judges in their pyjamas’ as flight sending Jamaican serious criminals home finally takes off with just 13 of the 57 deportees on board

  • Scores believed to have been hauled off at the last minute after legal challenges
  • Campaigners had been trying to halt flight amid ongoing Windrush scandal fears
  • Ministers insisted the flight was to remove ‘dangerous foreign criminals’ from UK

Priti Patel has lashed out at ‘lefty lawyers’ after a flight deporting serious criminals from the UK to Jamaica finally took off last night – with just 13 out of 57 on board.

Scores were hauled off the plane at the last minute after legal challenges by what the Home Office said were human rights solicitors ‘on the phones to judges in their pyjamas’.

Campaigners had been trying to halt the scheduled deportation flight to the West Indies amid ongoing concerns over the Windrush scandal.

But the Government insisted the flight was to remove ‘dangerous foreign criminals’ from the country, including those convicted of rape and murder. None of the offenders were eligible for the Windrush compensation scheme, according to ministers. 

A Home Office source last night told the Telegraph: ‘Lefty lawyers are going to spend all evening on the phones to judges in their pyjamas to try to get people who have committed heinous crimes dragged off this flight.’ 

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said today the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 ‘serious foreign criminals’.

But a number of Jamaican nationals due to be on board are said to have been granted a last-minute legal reprieve after the Home Office reportedly acknowledged they may be victims of modern slavery.

Ms Patel last night attacked efforts by Labour MPs  to halt the flight. In a letter to ringleader MP Clive Lewis she said: ‘When you and other Labour MPs continue to call for the Government to stop this flight, I would implore you to think of the victims of these criminals’ shameful offences.

‘There can be no doubt that the idea of these deportations being halted at the last minute only serves to re-traumatise them.’

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 'serious foreign criminals'

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 'serious foreign criminals'

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 ‘serious foreign criminals’

Home Office minister Chris Philp said a flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 `serious foreign criminals´ to Jamaica (Tom Pilgrim/PA)

Home Office minister Chris Philp said a flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 `serious foreign criminals´ to Jamaica (Tom Pilgrim/PA)

Home Office minister Chris Philp said a flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 `serious foreign criminals´ to Jamaica (Tom Pilgrim/PA)

Jamaican criminal who avoided deportation after release is charged with a new murder 

A Jamaican convicted criminal who won a battle to avoid deportation from the UK when he was released from jail has been charged with murder.

The man had served a six-year prison sentence in the UK for weapons and drugs offences and was due to be deported in February.

However, according to the Telegraph, the man claimed the deportation would violate his rights and he was removed from the flight.

The newspaper reports that within eight months, the man had been charged with murder of a young man, attempted murder and possession of a banned weapon. 

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The group of 57 criminals on the original passenger manifest were handed jail sentences totalling a combined 228 years, plus the murderer who was handed a life sentence.

Offences committed by the group also included rape, child sex offences, manslaughter, gun and drug crimes, and GBH.

It is understood most the offenders due to be on the flight came to Britain as adults, with a few who arrived as teenage minors. None was born in the UK.

The specially-chartered flight is thought to have cost the taxpayer several hundred thousand pounds. 

According to charities, lawyers had also gone to court to prevent parents set to be on the flight being separated from their children, who would be left behind in the UK.

According to the Home Office, the 13 on the flight had combined sentences of more than 100 years, including three who were convicted of murder, another of manslaughter, while others had been sentenced for crimes like grooming, drug dealing, burglary and robbery.

The department is yet to provide any more detail on why others were left off the flight before it departed.

It comes as the Home Office reportedly struck a deal with Jamaica not to deport those who arrived in the UK as children on the controversial flight.

France is REFUSING to stop cross-channel migrant boats once they are in the water 

French authorities are refusing to intercept migrant boats heading for Britain once they are in the English Channel, despite receiving millions of pounds of UK taxpayers cash to cut off the route, a minister admitted today.

Chris Philp admitted that a £28million deal signed with Paris at the weekend would not affect migrants who manage to get their often ramshackle vessels into the water because of the French ‘operational posture’.

Home Secretary Priti Patel signed an agreement with France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Saturday to double the number of officers patrolling beaches on the Channel coast.

They pledged to make the route ‘completely unviable’ for people smuggling gangs.

But facing the Home Affairs Committee this morning, Immigration Compliance Minister Mr Philp admitted that it once migrants were on the water they could not currently be stopped heading for Britain.

Tory MP Tim Loughton asked: ‘Is it not the case that no agreement still has been reached with the French government about the French government proactively turning back the boats, intercepting them, once they get into the water, and without that we will still continue to see a flow of people taking their chances at the hands of people smugglers coming across the channel in those small boats in whatever numbers?’

Mr Philp replied: ‘That is currently correct. The French operational posture on the water is that they don’t forcibly intercept migrant boats. 

‘They will rescue them if they start sinking and if migrants request assistance. But they do not currently forcibly intercept migrant boats while in French waters.’

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According to the Guardian, the Caribbean island’s high commissioner Seth Ramocan said officials agreed the arrangement – for those who arrived in Britain under the age of 12 – following diplomatic discussions. But the Home Office has not confirmed the details.

Mr Philp said: ‘In the early hours of this morning, 13 serious foreign criminals were deported from the UK.

‘It is disappointing that specialist immigration law firms continued to use last-minute tactics to remove a significant number of offenders from this flight.’

He added: ‘These individuals had every opportunity to raise the claims in the days and weeks leading up to the flight; however, a significant number of claims were not submitted until hours before the flight was due to leave – meaning murderers and rapists have been able to stay in the UK.

‘Those we are attempting to remove have committed crimes which have a devastating impact on victims and their families.

‘We will be working through these cases as quickly as possible. I remain committed to removing foreign criminals and anyone without a legal basis to be here to keep the British public safe – which will always be my number one priority.’

Earlier this week, Mr Philp denied that deporting foreign national offenders is discriminatory after Conservative MPs called for ‘activist lawyers’ to be prevented from stopping flights at the last minute.

He told the Commons there is ‘no element of discrimination in this policy whatsoever’ and that it applies to French and Spanish nationals just as much as individuals from Jamaica.

It came after the Home Office reportedly struck a deal with Jamaica not to deport those who arrived in the UK as children, although officials have not confirmed the agreement.

Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: ‘As minister Philp well knows, last minute claims are filed because his Government fails to provide effective access to justice before mass expulsions.

‘But the tragedy of this tale is the many devastated children who have had a loving parent forcibly ripped from their lives without any consultation or being able to make their voice heard. This is child cruelty plain and simple and it will not stand.’

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