Zimbabweans recently deported from UK now homeless on eve of new Home Office flight

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Many have no family, social or financial links with the countries they are due to be deported to, and would be placed at risk of persecution, isolation and poverty.” Director of Detention Action Bella Sankey said it was “morally repugnant” that people who were brought to the UK as children were being deported to homelessness and destitution, and described the removals to Zimbabwe, “a country still rife with oppression and human rights abuses”, as a “grotesque mission”. It’s not fair for them to judge me on a mistake I made 10 years ago.” Zoe Gardner, policy and advocacy manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said it was wrong to “exile” people who call the UK home to a country “they barely know, where their lives could be put at risk”. Describing the deportations as a “cruel double punishment”, she added: “The Home Office must stop tearing people away from their homes, families and communities.” Zita Holbourne, national chair of campaigning group Barac UK, said: “The government has embarked on a summer of mass deportations. tearing families apart and including people who came to the UK as children and those who will face persecution if deported.” A Home Office spokesperson said the men deported in July had a “history of serious and persistent offending in the UK, with crimes including assault and burglary”.