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<p>I can confirm that the returns charter flight to Jamaica took place on 6 February
2019. I do not plan to cancel any other returns charter flights.</p><p>Returns charter
flight operations remain an important means by which we return illegal migrants and
Foreign National Offenders without a right to remain in the UK. They would otherwise
have to be returned alongside fare paying passengers on scheduled flights.</p><p>The
UK Borders Act 2007 requires that the Home Secretary issues a deporta-tion order for
anyone who is a foreign national offender sentenced to a period of 12 months or more
imprisonment. That is a legal requirement. Most liberal democracies around the world
have similar laws in place. British offenders in foreign states are often deported
back to the UK, including from Jamaica, which has in the past deported British nationals
who have committed serious offences back to the UK.</p><p>Everyone deported on the
returns charter flight to Jamaica was a foreign national offender. All of them have
been convicted of serious crimes, such as rape, murder, firearms offences and drug
trafficking. This law applies universally to all foreign national offenders.</p>
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