Eight people due to be deported from the UK to Jamaica are having their cases reviewed by the Home Office after fresh legal representations were made.

The group are being held in detention centres while their cases are considered but the move could see some being released.

Some 50 people were originally expected to be on a chartered deportation flight that left the UK at around 7.30am on Tuesday.

But it took off with 17 on board after a last-minute legal battle between the government and human rights campaigners.

The Home Office lost a ruling on Monday after a judge said some of the detainees had not been able to get proper access to legal advice.


Chancellor Sajid Javid told Sky News' Kay Burley that those being kicked out were "not British" and were guilty of serious offences such as rape and drug dealing.

Seventeen people were deported but 25 people were removed from the flight because of the court decision, a Home Office source said.

Image: Seventeen convicted criminals were on the flight. File pic

Those on board are understood to have served a total of 75 years in prison.

"There will be at least 30 more serious criminals still in the country because of the ruling, some of whom will have to be released into the community," said the source.

Campaigners say some of the people affected have lived in the UK since they were children, committed one-time offences when they were young and have no links with Jamaica.

But Chancellor Sajid Javid said: "Every single person on the flight is a foreign national offender.

"They are not British, they are not members of the Windrush generation and they are all guilty of serious crimes, receiving custodial sentences of at least 12 months."

He said they were guilty of offences such as manslaughter, rape and dealing class A drugs.

Monday's Court of Appeal ruling came after lawyers said some detainees could not get access to legal advice because of problems with an O2 phone mast near the detention centres.

They were being held at two facilities near Heathrow airport.

Image: MP Nadia Whittome is one of those who called for the deportations to be stopped

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 3 February".

More than 150 politicians had also written to the prime minister calling on him to stop the deportation until a review is published on the lessons learned from the Windrush scandal

That scandal involved people originally from the Caribbean - who had legally been in the UK for decades - being denied access to services, held in detention or removed.

A leaked report into the scandal reportedly warns that the government's deportation policy should be reconsidered in all but the "most severe cases".

Seen by the Press Association, it advises ministers to "consider ending all deportations of FNOs (foreign national offenders) where they arrived in the UK as children (say before age of 13). Alternatively - deportation should only be considered in the most severe cases".

It is unclear when the report will be officially released.

Last year, 29 convicted criminals were deported to Jamaica on the first deportation flight since Windrush.

Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted and received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more.

Possible exceptions include where this would breach human rights or obligations under the Refugee Convention.

Two of the men who had been set to be deported were convicted of drugs offences as teenagers and say they have no link to Jamaica, having left at a young age

Image: Carline Angus said she fears for her son's safety if he is deported

Tajay Thompson, who was convicted of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply as a 17-year-old, has been given a reprieve.

He served half of a 15-month sentence in 2015 and, now 23, he told Sky News: "It's not like I'm a rapist or a murderer, I've made a mistake when I was 17 and it's now going to affect my whole life."

Mr Thompson was brought to the UK as a five-year-old and lives with his mother and brother in London.

He has only been to Jamaica twice since then and said: "I feel like I was born here. Jamaica is not my country."

His mother Carline Angus said she feared for his safety if he was deported and was worried he would become an "easy target"

Mr Thompson filed a separate legal challenge and is able to remain in detention while his lawyers work to keep him in the UK indefinitely.

Akiva Heaven, 22, who served around four years for a drugs offence and was released in May 2018, said: "I've done my sentence already, I've done my crime, done my time as they would say.

"Now, I'm getting a double punishment."

Mr Heaven also said he fears for his life if he is forced to return to a place where he has no relatives and no memories.