Sadiq Khan: Home Office must "properly go through" immigration cases amid deportation row

13 February 2020, 15:37 | Updated: 13 February 2020, 15:49

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told LBC that the Home Office needs to "properly go through" the individual immigration cases amid the deportation row.

Following a fiery clash between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson amid a row over the deportation of foreign criminals to Jamaica, Khan told James O'Brien where he stood.

James asked Khan: "Is there a case for saying that Jamaican criminals are not the same as other foreign-born criminals because of their relationship with Great Britain, with the motherland as you will."

Khan replied: "So I think we're going to distinguish somebody who arrives from Jamaica last year and is a member of an organised gang to somebody who came here in nappies 30 years ago."

When asked by James if that rule of thumb should apply to someone who committed a "vile" crime, the politician pointed out that is why the immigration services should properly asses the cases.

He said: "And that's one of the reasons why you'd expect the UK borders authority, the immigration services, to properly go through their cases.

"And one of the concerns many of us have is we now know that there was a scandal in relation to the way the Home Office process, the applications of the Windrush generation and their children that led to many people who are entitled to be here, because their documentation wasn't regularized, not having the right state."

Khan also said: "A foreigner, who's not a British citizen or British national, who commits a criminal offence in this country, should be arrested, charged, prosecuted, serve their time here and then be deported.

"There was a separate issue about those who for all intensive purposes, are British, but the documentation hasn't been regularized."

He added: "They are treated as a foreign national and they're deported to country, which they've got no connection with. I think you can distinguish the two."

Watch the full clip at the top of the page.

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