Dear Supporter On the 18th of April I submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the Home Office asking for details of people deported to Caribbean Countries over the past ten years with a breakdown of country, age, gender etc and also asking for the number of out of country appeals which were successful & unsuccessful. Yesterday I received a response suggesting they may decide not to provide answers citing an exemption they may rely upon. I now have to wait a further 20 days while they decide whether to exercise the exemption. Here follows an extract of their letter; "Your request is being handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). We are considering your request. Although the FOIA carries a presumption in favour of disclosure, it provides exemptions which may be used to withhold information in specified circumstances. Some of these exemptions, referred to as ‘qualified’ exemptions, are subject to a public interest test. This test is used to balance the public interest in disclosure against the public interest in favour of withholding the information. The FOIA allows us to exceed the 20 working day response target where we need to consider the public interest test fully. The information which you have requested is being considered under the exemptions in section 22 of the FOIA, which relates future publication. This is a qualified exemption and to consider the public interest test fully we need to extend the 20 working day response period. We now aim to let you have a full response by Friday 15 June 2018." The scandal of Windrush deportations is in the public interest and all those impacted deserve justice as I told the Morning Star newspaper responding to the Home Secretary's claim that there have been 63 wrongful deportations ; Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (Barac) co-founder Zita Holbourne told the Morning Star that she thinks the number of wrongful Windrush deportations is likely to be far higher given the number of mass removals on charter flights. She said: “I don’t believe this figure takes account of those who are the family of Windrush generation people such as children and grandchildren. “People were invited from the Caribbean to come and work to help the country recover post war, they came, worked hard in the face of horrific racism in what was called the ‘mother country’. What mother disregards, rejects and ejects their children in this way?” Ms Holbourne said the figure also doesn’t factor in people who were refused entry back into Britain after spending most of their lives here. “There has to be a case-by-case approach and assessment and full compensation for all loss damages and injury, the psychological impact as well as physical and financial impact,” she added. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said Labour would rescind all elements of the legislation supporting Theresa May’s “hostile environment,” including shutting down “immigration removal centres” and ending indefinite detention. Ms Abbott said Labour would also restore “proper rights of appeal.” “If we are going to deprive people of the right to be here, we must be clear that they do not have the right to live here,” she said. You can read the full article using the attached link. We need to keep up the pressure and hold the Goverment accountable for the injustice, misery & pain caused by this injustice. Solidarity and thanks for signing & sharing. Zita Zita Holbourne National Chair, BARAC UK