Man Who Has Lived In Uk 26 Years Faces Deportation To Jamaica

A Jamaican man who has lived in the UK for 26 years is being detained in a cell facing deportation, in one of the first such cases since new anti-immigration measures were announced last week.

Mark Nelson, 46, came to the UK in 2000. In 2017 he received a four-year prison sentence for growing cannabis, which he did after his car mechanic business faced difficulties. He served two years and has not committed an offence since.

He was threatened with deportation in 2022 but instead was electronically tagged and told to report to a Home Office centre every week. When he showed up to report last week, he was arrested and told he would be deported.

Nelson told the Guardian: “I’m in a hot and filthy cell on the induction wing. My mental health is so bad because of what the Home Office has done to me. For the first time in my life, I have taken antidepressant medication.

“What the Home Office don’t think about when they try to deport someone like me is the impact it has not only on the person but on so many other people around them. I love my kids so much, and I can’t bear to think of them being without their dad. I try to be a good role model for them. I talk to them about my crime to try to ensure they don’t make the same mistake I made.”

Last week the government published its new immigration and asylum bill. Among the proposed measures are a plan to downgrade the protection of the right to respect for private and family life in UK law, which is covered under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “All foreign national offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.

“More than 70,000 illegal migrants and foreign national offenders have been returned since this government took office, a 41% increase.”