Jamaican man Mark Nelson wins bail after last-minute legal challenge halts deportation
A judicial review filed after Guardian coverage forced the Home Office to cancel Mark Nelson's removal flight and grant him bail to rejoin his British family.
What to know
- Mark Nelson, 47, faced deportation to Jamaica almost a decade after a 2017 conviction, despite committing no further offences.
- A last-minute judicial review application, brought by lawyers who volunteered after reading Guardian coverage, led the Home Office to cancel his removal flight.
- Nelson has now been granted bail and reunited with his British partner and five children; separate tribunal and modern slavery referral processes are ongoing.
- His solicitor argues the case shows how lack of timely legal access lets the Home Office remove people before proper scrutiny.
“He committed his offences in 2017 and served his sentence. Yet nearly a decade later he continues to endure the threat of deportation, with the devastating possibility that he could be permanently torn away from his British children and partner. A prison sentence should not become a life sentence by another name.”
Naga Kandiah, Solicitor, MTC Solicitors · The Guardian · Aug 15
Mark Nelson Jamaican man facing deportationRachel Derbyshire Nelson's partnerNaga Kandiah Solicitor, MTC SolicitorsHome Office UK government immigration authority
The record 4 press and posts · last 8 hours
The conversation 10 comments and posts from 1 site · verbatim · 3 claimed on the threads
- Today
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Why does that make no sense to you? This person is a British citizen by all accounts. Are you claiming that any ex-pat from Britain that commits a crime in any other country should be deported back to Britain? We have lots of British people that are now citizens in many other countries, are you saying we should take back all those criminals too…
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Of course they're two different things. But in your version of the logic they're using, prisons become redundant unless for some reason you believe they don't protect the public from criminals and deportation does. Deport all criminal Brits!
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Yeah many of these people are fantastic, and have worked hard in this country. But why should a criminal from Jamaica not be deported because there are 10 good guys from Jamaica? That makes no sense
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Those that champion "fighting racism" as one of their core principles don't seem to care in this case.
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I see. I honestly wouldn't give a shit if we rented out a few cells in El Salvador or Rwanda and sent the worst of our native criminals there to serve their sentences. Foreign criminals of course don't get the return flight.
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This is where your history fails you. The Windrush generation were invited all the way up until 1971. Changes in immigration laws in both 71 & 73 changed that. Then we had records that weren't kept by the Home Office and weren't documented that failed this particular generation which happened all the way up until 2016/17. So no it isn't just…
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It's more that he's a thief and drug dealer. I do find it bemusing that those who find racism to be a cardinal sin are tying themselves in knots defending him.
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Same way you deport this guy. Convince another country to take him. The method of convincing might be different, but deporting someone still requires that another country let you. Just Rwanda all the native criminals.
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Okay show me any case someone got a 4 year sentence for selling £10 of weed. You must be dumb, the sentence is proportionate to the crime. 4 years is a hefty sentence, not in line with £10 of weed. Why are you so intent on defending a criminal?
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