BARAC UK call to action: Jamaica mass deportation 18th May - model letter for MPs

 

Please use and feel free to adapt the model letter below and send urgently to your MP asking them to take action to stop the mass deportation flight to Jamaica scheduled for 18th of May 2022.

If you do not know how to contact your MP or who they are, use this link .

You just need your postcode to hand. 

Follow us on social media @baracuk on twitter and @baracukoriginal on instagram.

We are using the hashtags #Jamaica50 and #StopthePlane 

Model Letter to MPs 

Dear [Member of Parliament],

I am writing as a constituent to ask that you urgently oppose the mass deportation by charter flight to Jamaica, scheduled by the Home Office on 18^th of May. Mass deportation flights are a breach of human rights. There is evidence that the Caribbean community has been targeted disproportionately for deportations in addition to the horrific impacts of the Windrush scandal.

Amongst those targeted for deportation on these flights are young people who have been victims of modern day slavery, people who have made their home in the UK for decades, , who came to the UK as children, who are parents of British born and young children, who came to the country as refugees, including people who have had to flee persecution. Most are the children and grandchildren of the Windrush Generation and they are their families have contributed to the UK economy and wider society over many decades. Invited here to help the UK recover post World War II.

 

Over the past two years there have been outbreaks of coronavirus in detention centres in and those detained have reported a woeful and unacceptable lack of PPE and wider safety measures. People being deported are transported in packed vans, often handcuffed to escorts, on long journeys to airports, where they then are chained to their seats and to two guards. Given that black and minority ethnic people have contracted and died of covid disproportionately, this is irresponsible to put people who are at high risk already, in this position. This has included people with serious medical conditions.

In addition, the vast majority have British children, partners and wider family here. Tearing parents apart from loved ones including children is inhumane and causes distress and trauma to children and is unlawful, breaching the human rights of children and families. 

The fast turnaround of deportations leaves inadequate time to access legal advice and representation which has been made worse because access to the computer rooms at detention centres have been closed or with limited and restricted access. There have also been reports of fax machines and computers not working meaning that people detained cannot communicate with legal representatives. Access to legal support is a fundamental human right.

Once deported, people face destitution, trauma and persecution, with some having fled persecution in the first place, this impacts severely on both physical and mental health. We know that some people have sadly been killed or taken their own lives subsequently. 

 I am asking that you take urgent action, including writing to the Home Secretary calling for this flight to be cancelled and to call for an end to charter flight mass deportations. 

 

 

Regards,

[Your Name]

 

 

Please add your full postal address to confirm you are a constituent. 

 

Find your MP here: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

 

STOP the charter flight mass deportation to Zimbabwe on 2nd of March 22 - write to your MP using our model letter and sign the petition

 Please take urgent action and write to your MP using the model letter below - feel free to adapt.

Sign our joint  petition here: https://www.change.org/p/uk-home-office-stop-the-charter-flight-deportations-to-zimbabwe

Share our updates and actions on social media - we are using the hashtags:

#Zimbabwe150  #StopthePlane

Model Letter to MPs 

Dear [Member of Parliament],

I am writing as a constituent to ask that you urgently oppose the mass deportation  by  charter flight scheduled by the Home Office on 2^nd of March 2022.   This comes after a disproportionate targeting of black people  for deportation over the last year. Mass deportation flights are a breach of human rights.

Amongst those targeted for deportation on these flights  are young people who have been victims of modern-day slavery, people who have made their home in the UK for decades, who have contributed to the British economy and society, who came to the UK as children, who are parents of British born and young children, who came to the country as refugees, including people who have had to flee persecution. This is the case for the vast majority of people who left Zimbabwe, where individuals and their families had no choice but to flee for their lives and who are in grave danger if they return to Zimbabwe.

Tearing parents apart from loved ones including children is inhumane and causes distress and trauma to children with no regard for the human rights of children. 

The fast turnaround of deportations leaves inadequate time to access legal advice and representation which has been made worse because access to the computer rooms at detention centres have been closed or with limited access. There have also been reports of fax machines and computers not working meaning that people detained cannot communicate with legal representatives plus covid spreading through detention centres meaning it is not safe for people to fly.

Those targeted  face destitution trauma and persecution  once deported,  impacting on physical and mental health. We know that some people have sadly  been killed or taken their own lives subsequently.  There is also an impact on the families they are torn apart from, with children experiencing trauma.

I am also concerned that the Windrush Lessons Learned recommendations are yet to be implemented, two years down the line.  The report found the Home Office to be institutionally ignorant of racism.  It is irresponsible to target black  and minority ethnic people for deportation when no lessons have been learned.

 I am asking that you take urgent action, including writing to the Home Secretary calling for these flights  to be cancelled and to call for an end to charter flight mass  deportations. 

 

 

Regards,

[Your Name]

 

 

Please add your full postal address to confirm you are a constituent. 

 

Find your MP here: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

 

Jamaica 50 campaign - opposing the hostile environment : by Donna Guthrie, BARAC Women's Officer

 Thank you for your solidarity in opposing the government's Hostile environment and the mass deportations taking place.

This Wednesday 2 December, in the middle of a worldwide Covid 19 pandemic, the Tory government carried out a racist inhumane deportation of 13 black men to Jamaica, a country they had not seen in some cases since childhood and ripping them apart from their families here in the UK. 

From the lives they have built, their loved ones and children just days before Christmas  despite huge opposition.

The same racist system that targets black people disproportionately with stop and search, delivers injustice in terms of harsher sentencing now under the hostile environment immigration controls revisits these black men to deport them. This is unjust, inhumane and racist and punishes them again due to the papers they hold. 

Men, who in most cases committed minor offenses have served their sentences and been rehabilitated and are living their lives only to be ripped away from their families and the only home that they know in the UK.

BARAC UK along with  BAME Lawyers for Justice, Detention Action and other race equality and migrant rights groups have worked tirelessly to build the campaign to #StopThePlane and highlight the plight of the #Jamaica50.

 
Black Activists have lead this campaign involving students, anti-racist activists, black celebrities and public figures, lawyers and barristers  and MPs to demand the cancellation of the deportation flight on 2 December.

Over 185000 people  signed the BARAC UK  petition online and wrote to their MPs. Many more put pressure on major airlines and the pilot union BALPA to refuse to fly the deportation flight.

BARAC UK and more than 90 high-profile figures, campaigners and activists urged airline companies to decline to operate the plane. Model Naomi Campbell, actress Thandie Newton, author Bernardine Evaristo, and historian David Olusoga and a host of prominent Black figures signed an open letter, addressed to airlines including Hi Fly, Titan Airways and TUI, also calling for they to stop the operation of future deportation flights to Commonwealth countries.

Lawyers worked tirelessly to gather details of cases and assist with urgent legal challenges brought right up until the plane left Stanstead  in the early hours on Wed morning.

Zita Holbourne BARAC UK co founder and national chair spoke throughout the campaign to those families affected, providing support and advice and shared reports and did numerous press interviews to get their voices out.

The Home Office has confirmed that 13 people were on board its chartered plane. This is far fewer than the 50 they had hoped.

Together we stopped 37 people being deported but the children of the 13 taken are heartbroken.

Thank you to everyone who took part in these actions. Your solidarity has made a real difference.

Deportation is a part of the hostile environment responsible for the Windrush Scandal and continues to impact on windrush descendants and wider.

With further deportation flights planned its clear that the racist backlash to our campaign has begun with the right wing media joining Priti Patel to target immigration lawyers and leading activist. Pushing out racist troupes  such as those from Nick Ferrari on LBC and from the Daily mail.
 
It's clear we must redouble our efforts to push back against racism. 
We must demand justice, reforms in the law and an end to detention and deportation.

We must demand that the Home Office implement the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned review, that they compensate Windrush victims and that they cease with their racist agenda.

I urge you all to support BARAC UK. Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and sign up to our mailing list for campaign updates and together let's build the campaign to #StopThePlane and oppose racism.

Donna Guthrie National Women's Officer BARAC UK. 

To support our work please see affiliation / donation form and BARAC Humanitarian Aid crowdfunder:

BARAC AFFILIATION FORM

 

To affiliate to Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK please complete and return this form together with a cheque or alternatively pay directly into our account bank account.

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Signature:

 

 Date:

 

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Please return affiliation form (and cheque) to:

 

 BARAC UK C/O Zita Holbourne, National Co-Chair BARAC UK PCS HQ 160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2LN

 

 Alternatively email to: barac.info@gmail.com

https://uk.gofundme.com/f/BARACHumanitarian

 

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK Web: www.blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com

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 Thank you for your support

BARAC petition calling for a halt to mass deportations to Jamaica hits smashes 160000 signatures and chair of BARAC joins 90 black public figures and celebrities calling on airlines to withdraw involvement

 

Thank you to everyone who has signed our BARAC UK / BAME for petition  - just under 165000 signatures - we need your ongoing support to stop the mass deportation flight to Jamaica on 2nd of November.

Please sign if you haven't and check the updates over the last week as there are actions you can take and a template letter to send to your MP.

Sign the petition here

Today 90 I joined 90 Black British public figures and celebrities - co-signing an open letter to airlines that participate in deportation flights calling on them to withdraw their involvement. 

The letter was signed by , Bernardine Evaristo, model Naomi Campbell, historian David Olusoga and actors Naomie Harris and Thandie Newton, as well as lawyers, broadcasters and NGO chiefs. Leading Windrush campaigners including Michael Braithwaite and Elwaldo Romeo

Read more here

The letter has received national and international news coverage.

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Read the letter here

Please follow us on twitter @baracuk and on instagram @baracukoriginal and join our facebook group BARAC UK for updates and developments.

Please also use the hashtags #Jamaica50  and #StopthePlane