Jamaican man who has lived in UK for 26 years facing deportation

Case of Mark Nelson, 46, is one of first since new measures were announced in last week’s immigration bill

A Jamaican man who has lived more than half his life in the UK is facing deportation to his home country in one of the first cases since new anti-immigration measures were announced in last week’s immigration bill .

Mark Nelson, 46, came to the UK in 2000 and set up his own car mechanic business. He has five British children and a British partner. In 2017, he received a four-year prison sentence for growing cannabis plants, something he said he did after his business experienced financial problems. He has not committed any further offences.

In 2022, he wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian about being under threat of deportation. He said Jamaica was a place where he no longer knew anyone after his great-grandparents, who brought him up there, died when he was 16.

His removal was later cancelled and instead he was tagged and had to report weekly at a Home Office reporting centre. But last Thursday when Nelson went to report, he was arrested, detained and told that the government planned to deport him to Jamaica.

Speaking from a detention centre near Heathrow airport, Nelson told the Guardian he was devastated about once again facing deportation and separation from his five children and his partner. “I’m in a hot and filthy cell on the induction wing. My mental health is so bad because of what the Home Office has done to me. For the first time in my life, I have taken antidepressant medication.

“My family is so upset. My brother, who is 46, was crying on the phone when he heard I had been detained. I haven’t been able to sleep a wink since they brought me here. I was in such a state of shock when they arrested me,” he said.

“What the Home Office don’t think about when they try to deport someone like me is the impact it has not only on the person but on so many other people around them. I love my kids so much, and I can’t bear to think of them being without their dad. I try to be a good role model for them. I talk to them about my crime to try to ensure they don’t make the same mistake I made.”

His partner, Rachel Derbyshire, said that all of Nelson’s family were distraught about his detention and threatened deportation. “It seems that the Home Office is not going to let this go. Mark’s mental health is really bad because of this. He’s a really lovely guy, but the Home Office is treating him as if he was a rapist or a murderer.”

The new immigration bill lays out a harsher test for the family and private life test known as article 8 in deportation cases.

Although exceptional circumstances are taken into consideration – such as the extent to which a person is socially and culturally integrated in the UK, whether there would be significant obstacles to integration into their country of birth and whether the effect of the person’s deportation on family members would be unduly harsh – it appears that the government wants to proceed with Nelson’s deportation despite the length of time he has lived in the UK and his strong family ties.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.