WHILE the number of Jamaicans being deported from the United Kingdom has dwindled significantly over the last three years, British High Commissioner to Jamaica Judith Slater says her Government remains committed to maintaining funding support to assist with the resettlement of those sent back.

“The numbers have been pretty low over the last three years, I arrived at a time when there was a lot of controversy about returnees and there were challenges…that was one of the issues that was taking up quite a lot of my time in the first few months I was here,” Slater, the first woman to serve as Britain’s top diplomat here, told the Jamaica Observer in an interview on Monday ahead of her end-of-tour departure in mid-September.

She said since then, there has been “a steady drip, drip feed of Jamaicans returning on scheduled aircraft” instead of the more known “big charter flights”.

While acknowledging that the situation with returnees remains controversial, Slater said the British Government has exerted efforts to ensure a smooth transition for affected individuals.

“The support we provide in terms of making sure people have somewhere to stay when they arrive, making sure they will be assisted, helping financially. If returnees come with a business plan, we will support them in that business plan, we have a little award scheme for the best business plans, we have dedicated staff who work on this,” the high commissioner said.

Slater told the Observer that she has visited some of the ventures started by returnees and her Government is sympathetic to the fact that, “quite a number of these people have been away from Jamaica for a very long time and so they don’t necessarily have family to pick back up with what they might have left behind.”

The British Government, over the years, has supported the Open Arms Drop-in Centre for returned residents to the tune of $11 million but Slater pointed out that, “The contract with Open Arms has just been taken over by IRARA [global team of humanitarian and immigration specialists]; that will continue for the foreseeable future, there is no intention to change that at all.”

IRARA operates in more than 20 countries working with people returning to their country of origin, supporting them to rebuild their lives within their communities.

According to data presented on the website of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, five countries of nationality accounted for 61 per cent of the roughly 34,000 people deported from the UK in 2024 — India, Albania, Brazil, Romania, and China.

It said returns from the UK increased by 25 per cent in 2024, to the highest level since 2017. Numbers specific to Jamaica was not highlighted in the data.

According to the website, in 2024, around 5,100 foreign national offenders (FNOs) were returned from the UK. An FNO is someone who is not a British citizen and has been convicted either in the UK of any criminal offence, or abroad of any serious criminal offence. It said returns of FNOs increased by 66 per cent between 2022 and 2024, reaching levels similar to those seen in 2010.

Overstaying is a criminal offence under UK immigration law and can lead to detention, fines, and a re-entry ban of up to 10 years. Late visa applications can be made for individuals who have overstayed, considering that they have a valid reason, with clear evidence, such as a medical emergency or bereavement. Individuals have 30 days to leave the UK voluntarily after their visa expires to reduce the risk of harsher penalties.

In 2003 the British Home Office, in an explanatory memorandum tabled in the British Parliament, said there was “compelling evidence that Jamaican nationals associated with criminal activity are causing significant harm to the UK by exploiting the requirement of not needing a transit visa to enter and remain in the UK illegally”. It said there were “also significant numbers of Jamaican nationals overstaying and working in breach”, hence the visa requirement.