UNITED KINGDOM— Most of the people who were due to board a deportation flight to Jamaica on Wednesday were removed from the flight list as anti-deportation activists blocked the road in front of a detention centre to try to prevent them from being put on the plane, the Guardian reported.

The activists, who call themselves Stop The Plane, locked themselves to metal pipes outside Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick airport.

According to the Guardian, the Airbus A350-900, which can take up to 350 passengers, left Birmingham airport at 1:20 am on Wednesday with four of an original list of more than 50 deportees on board, along with escorts and crew. The average cost of a Home Office deportation charter flight is £200,000, so the operation cost the equivalent of £50,000 a person. The numbers removed on the last four Jamaica charter flights have decreased steadily at 17, 13, seven and now four.

Home Office deportation flights to Jamaica are controversial because of the Windrush scandal. Although the Home Office says nobody from the Windrush generation is on the list, some have Windrush connections, the Guardian said.

The Home Office has encountered various problems with the flight. The COVID outbreak at Colnbrook, an immigration removal centre near Heathrow, has led to some detainees being told their removal flight has been deferred; in addition, some of those who were due to fly on Wednesday were identified as potential victims of trafficking as a result of county lines drug dealing, which requires further investigation.

According to the Guardian, concern has been raised at the highest level by the Jamaican High Commissioner, Seth Ramocan, about people who have been in the UK since childhood.

A survey of 17 people originally expected to fly on Wednesday by the organisation Movement For Justice, identified at least 10 who have been in the UK since they were children. They include one man who came to Britain at the age of nine and was raised by his aunt, who was from the Windrush generation. At least 24 British children have been at risk of losing their fathers.

A spokesperson for Stop The Plane said: “We reject the legitimacy of the entire deportation regime. It is premised on racist notions of black, brown and racialised people.”

The Home Office stated, “Those individuals with no right to be in the UK and foreign national offenders should be in no doubt that we will do whatever is necessary to remove them. This is what the public rightly expects and why we regularly operate flights to different countries. All immigration removal centres have dedicated 24-hour on-site medical facilities, including access to independent doctors and nurses, with healthcare support provided throughout the removal process. An individual’s medical needs are determined by an independent doctor and will always be considered when removing them.”