The Home Office has gone ahead with its decision to deport over 17 Jamaicans on Tuesday (Feb. 11), despite a court ruling that blocked the flight, and hundreds of British citizens taking to the streets of London in protest.

A spokesman for the Home Office reportedly

told UK media, “We make no apology for trying to protect the public from

serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders. The court ruling

does not apply to all of the foreign national offenders due to be deported and

we are therefore proceeding with the flight.”

The — David Lammy (@DavidLammy)

The — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) #Jamaica50 flight has taken off.The government is deporting people who arrived in the UK as young as 2, often for one-time drug offences. The lessons from Windrush have not been learned. Lives are being ruined because we don’t remember our history.https://t.co/fp8Q9mpJDiFebruary 11, 2020

The charter flight follows what many saw as breathing room for the Jamaicans after the Court of Appeal judge ordered the Home Office not to honour its scheduled deportation in an intervention ruling on Monday.

There were growing concerns, echoed by Lady

Justice Simler, that severe network outages had prevented several Jamaicans

from accessing legal advice while in detention.

According to a report from the BBC, 25 Jamaicans were spared the fate of deportation due to the last-minute court ruling.

Member of Parliament for Tottenham David Lammy

blasted the deportation flight as cruel.

Lammy further argued that the British

government has painted the lopsided image that the Jamaicans were hardened

criminals, even though many immigrated to the UK as children and were only convicted

on one-time drug offences.

The — David Lammy (@DavidLammy)

The — David Lammy (@DavidLammy) #Jamaica50 flight left this morning. It is an outrage that the government deports people who arrived in the UK as children to countries they do not know. We must not give up this fight.pic.twitter.com/L1IvcDsodVFebruary 11, 2020

“The #Jamaica50 flight left this morning.

It is an outrage that the government deports people who arrived in the UK as

children to countries they do not know. We must not give up this fight,” Lammy

tweeted.