The advisory panel of a review into the Windrush scandal, including a former senior immigration judge, has warned against the resumption of mass deportation flights to Jamaica until after its report is published.

Up to 50 people are due to be deported on Tuesday in what will be the second immigration removal charter flight to Jamaica since the Guardian exposed the scandal of the wrongful deportation of Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean in 2018.

MPs, support services for migrants and activists have criticised the flight, pointing out that it is taking place before the publication of the long-delayed “Windrush lessons learned” review.

On Thursday night BBC Newsnight reported that it had seen a leaked copy of the review and it recommended that the government consider ending the deportation of foreign-born offenders who came to the UK as children.

MP David Lammy told the programme: “I think it is extraordinary that it is even happening. There is a young man who was about to be deported who did two months for GBH, and the young man I spoke to was groomed … he was groomed into selling drugs, he got 15 months for selling, he was let out in 2015 and is about to be deported in 2020. We stopped deporting criminals to Australia in 1868, why have we started doing it through the back door this way?”

Earlier British officials and their counterparts in Jamaica continued to insist that all those set for removal are criminals, and that no Windrush victims are involved. However, the Guardian understands, that other recommendations in the review may include a broadening of who counts as a Windrush victim.

Q&A What is the Windrush deportation crisis? Show Hide Who are the Windrush generation? They are people who arrived in the UK after the second world war from Caribbean countries at the invitation of the British government. The first group arrived on the ship MV Empire Windrush in June 1948. What happened to them? An estimated 50,000 people faced the risk of deportation if they had never formalised their residency status and did not have the required documentation to prove it. Why now? It stems from a policy, set out by Theresa May when she was home secretary, to make the UK 'a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants'. It requires employers, NHS staff, private landlords and other bodies to demand evidence of people’s citizenship or immigration status. Why do they not have the correct paperwork and status? Some children, often travelling on their parents’ passports, were never formally naturalised and many moved to the UK before the countries in which they were born became independent, so they assumed they were British. In some cases, they did not apply for passports. The Home Office did not keep a record of people entering the country and granted leave to remain, which was conferred on anyone living continuously in the country since before 1 January 1973. What did the government try and do to resolve the problem? A Home Office team was set up to ensure Commonwealth-born long-term UK residents would no longer find themselves classified as being in the UK illegally. But a month after one minister promised the cases would be resolved within two weeks, many remained destitute. In November 2018 home secretary Sajid Javid revealed that at least 11 Britons who had been wrongly deported had died. In April 2019 the government agreed to pay up to £200m in compensation. Photograph: Douglas Miller/Hulton Archive

Asked about that possibility, James Hanratty, a former president of the Council of Immigration Judges, who sat on the review’s advisory panel, drew a distinction between people being deported for criminal offences and people who had suffered due to the Windrush scandal. But, he added: “It’s possible – but I don’t know the facts – that some of the people on the deportation flight may indeed be Windrush victims.

“Therefore – although it’s not for me to set out policy or advise the government – on the face of it, it would seem wise to postpone that flight until after the Windrush report is published.”

Wendy Williams, HM inspector of constabulary, was commissioned to oversee the Lessons Learned review in 2018, and its findings was originally intended to be published by the end of March last year. However, it has been repeatedly delayed. Last June, extracts of a leaked draft was published that said the Home Office failed in its duty to counter racism, and accused officials of recklessness and reluctance to acknowledge mistakes.

The report is currently undergoing a process of “Maxwellisation”, where those criticised are given the opportunity to respond, and is expected to be published soon.

In the interim, the Home Office does not know whether it is committing similar mistakes to those that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place, said Omar Khan, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, who also sat on the panel.

“They haven’t got to the bottom of the previous injustices, and here they are possibly making more,” he told the Guardian. “Given that deportations were one of the sources of the injustice of the initial Windrush scandal, until the lessons learned review has been published, and until the compensation scheme has run its course, there should be no more deportations [to Jamaica].”

Jacqui McKenzie, an immigration lawyer also on the panel, said on Wednesday she was concerned about the mass deportation going ahead before the review was published.

Meanwhile, many of those due to be removed from the UK next week are trying to build cases to prevent their deportation. However, they have been hampered by a lack of network coverage for their Home Office-issued mobile phones in the area around Heathrow where many are being detained.

On Thursday, after an order issued by the high court earlier in the week, it is understood that the Home Office admitted there were ongoing problems with the 02 phone network affecting up to 678 detainees in the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook removal centres, and pledged to provide 1,000 new sim cards by Sunday.

Detainees with tickets for the Jamaican charter flight have been prioritised for new sim cards. Initially the Home Office told the Guardian that the problem had been resolved last month.

Q&A What are enforced departures? Show Hide There are three layers of state-enforced or enforceable departures of immigrants from the UK: deportations, administrative removals and voluntary departures. Deportations apply to people and their children whose removal is deemed 'conducive to the public good' by the home secretary. They can also be recommended by a court.

Administrative removals refer to cases involving the enforced removal of non-citizens who have either entered the country illegally, outstayed a visa, or violated the conditions of their leave to remain. Voluntary departures are people against whom enforced removal has been initiated; the term 'voluntary' simply describes how they leave. There are three sub-categories: a) Those who depart via assisted voluntary return schemes.

b) Those who make their own travel arrangements and tell the authorities. c) Those who leave without notifying the government.

Toufique Hossain, of Duncan Lewis solicitors said: “Vulnerable detainees have been languishing in detention with limited or no access to phones for weeks effectively being prevented from stopping removal. It is almost farcical that the Home Office has confirmed they will supply working sims only after being taken to court. We still have major concerns that even if detainees have access today it will be too late for detainees with imminent removal.”

Bella Sankey of Detention Action, which issued a legal challenge against the Home Office because of the phone network problems, said: “An eleventh hour issuing of sim cards may not be sufficient for those seeking to challenge their removal on Tuesday’s flight. Not to mention the impact on those that have been removed while signal has been down.”

A decision from the high court is now expected on the application for permission to seek a judicial review of the phone problems.

Opponents of the charter flight continue to campaign for it to be cancelled. Bell Rebeiro-Addy, shadow immigration minister, said she would be attending a demonstration against the chartered deportation flight.

“We are very concerned these brutal deportation charter flights have been restarted before the Windrush lessons learned review has been published. We don’t want to be in a situation where we find out we have deported the wrong people.”

She was concerned about whether everyone who was due to be deported should really be classified as a serious criminal. “The prime minister has assured us that they are all serious criminals, but looking into their cases we are not sure that they are. Before deporting scores of people we want to be absolutely sure.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The planned charter flight to Jamaica is specifically for removing foreign criminals. Those detained for removal include people convicted of manslaughter, rape, violent crime and dealing class A drugs.”



