Do the time if you do the crime. But Jamaicans in Britain face the double punishment of deportation – that’s just cruel
- Lisa Hanna is an MP in Jamaica and the opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade
I have recently been thinking about the way we treat people who have broken the law. There is a significant philosophical issue here regarding the kind of societies we, as members of a globalised world, want to live in: if you have lived in a place since infancy or childhood and you commit a crime in that place, should you be punished in that place? Or should you be deported back to the country of your birth?
These questions come to mind as I read about the UK’s deportation flights. According to analysis by a campaign group, published in the Guardian last week, of 20 Jamaicans facing one recent deportation flight, the majority arrived in Britain as children. (The flight left this week with seven people on board; others remained in the UK pending legal challenges.)
Lisa Hanna is an MP in Jamaica and the opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade
