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Advocates urge due process be observed in UK deportation cases

Britain's Home Office is being urged to ensure people facing deportation have adequate access to legal advice prior to their removal.

The appeal follows the removal of 37 Jamaicans from a charter flight on Wednesday following a last-minute legal intervention.

Thirteen people were forcibly removed from the UK to Jamaica.

Immigration minister Chris Philp had accused the lawyers who intervened in their cases of using last-minute tactics.

This repeats claims by Home Secretary Priti Patel in recent months that activist lawyers intentionally wait until the eleventh hour to seek to delay and disrupt the process.

Immigration lawyers and those who were removed from the flight have countered however that barriers to accessing quality legal advice and a lack of access to communication while in detention had forced them to mount legal challenges at the eleventh hour.

Legal experts have also said the volume of challenges to removal also highlighted a lack of due process in the way deportations are carried out.

Ms Patel has said the UK's asylum system is to be overhauled to prevent migrants making multiple claims that can be lodged and heard hours or even minutes before their removal.


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