The term missing does not only refer to those whose whereabouts are completely unknown. Sometimes, a person can be missing but where they are is not a mystery. Either way, when people are not in the country they call home due to reasons beyond their control, they are missing from their community, they are missing from their family, and often they are also missing from the only life they have ever truly known.
Immigration is a widely debated and hugely divisive topic in the UK, and media coverage of it tends to focus on those who enter this country rather than those who leave it. But there is another story: that of the people who seemingly have the right to be here- because they were born or grew up in Britain from a very young age- but who are forced to leave and return to countries they know very little about, and in some cases, have never been to before.
In 2020, London-born twins, Darren and Darrell Roberts, made headlines because they faced deportation to different countries in the Caribbean – countries that neither of them had ever been to before. Indeed the pair had never once left the UK. Darren was issued with a deportation letter stating he would be deported to Grenada-the country their mother was born in- and Darrell received a letter informing him that the Home Office planned to send him to their father’s home country of the Dominican Republic.
The letters had arrived following the issuing of guidance from the Home Office that sought to deport all foreign nationals who had received prison sentences of more than 12 months – no matter where they were born, how long they have lived in the UK, or if they have any family or children here.
Both brothers, who had been separately convicted of grievous bodily harm offences, were close to finishing their prison sentences when they were told that they could not remain in the UK as they did not have recognised citizenship. They claim that Ealing Social Services was to blame because they were negligent in providing the pair with British citizenship after they went into care following the deaths of their mother and uncle (their father had already moved abroad and had no contact with the twins).
The Roberts’ younger sister, Freya, described the decision to remove the two men from the UK and each other as “systemic racism”.
A similar case happened in 2021 when Akeem Finlay, from Brixton, was faced with deportation on a chartered flight to Jamaica, following a conviction in 2014 for grievous bodily harm with intent. Since leaving prison, Akeem had not reoffended and “stayed out of trouble”. Nevertheless the father of four was detained at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport for more than a fortnight, before waiting to be taken against his will to a country he had not set foot in since he was 10 years old.
Trying to raise money for lawyer fees in an attempt to help Akeem stay in the country, his partner Nicole set up a case on CrowdJustice.com. She said “Akeem was sent from Jamaica after his father was killed. He has no family in Jamaica, and even his grandparents and cousins live in the UK who he regularly takes care of.
“He was involved once in a criminal incident, which was when he retaliated in an incident when he was attacked by a group of men. He ended up being hospitalised, served his sentence, and since his release…he has never looked back and focused on his work and family.“ It is unclear whether he has been deported yet or not.
In both these cases, the men being faced with removal from the country they call home have indeed committed criminal offences, but they have also fully served their sentence- and in the case of Akeem, moved on and lived as a law-abiding citizen here for years afterwards. It is difficult therefore to imagine why the Home Office deems it fit to remove these people from their lives, homes, and families. Isn’t the justice system supposed to reform those who go through it, leaving them no longer a danger to society?
Last month, an immigration tribunal overturned a “cruel and morally wrong” decision by the Home Office to deport Anthonell Peccoo back to Jamaica following imprisonment for grievous bodily harm and drugs offences in 2015. It was ruled that Anthonell, who arrived in London at the age of six and spent most of his life in Bristol, would have had his right to a private life and family infringed if he was sent to Jamaica.
The judges at the tribunal said that deportation would mean “exiling” Anthonell from the only country he has ever known, and would leave him an “outsider” in Jamaica. Since his release from prison, Anthonell has run a charitable barbershop for people on a low income, with the tribunal noting he has “shown genuine and tangible remorse” and that deporting him would be “cruel and morally wrong” because it would undo his rehabilitation.
Whether this trial will set a precedent for future similar cases is as of yet unclear, but it does raise the question as to what is classed as rehabilitation in these cases. Are foreign nationals who offend expected to do charity work after their sentence in order to remain here? How do we class a person as a danger to society or not a danger to society once they have served their sentence? If the justice system we have in this country is not providing adequate rehabilitation for offenders, then maybe we need to change the system itself rather than send the people who have gone through it away.