The Times - UK (2020-12-02)

the times | Wednesday December 2 2020 1GM 15

News

Priti Patel has accused Labour MPs

of “re-traumatising” victims of rape

and other serious crimes after they

demanded the government cancel a de-

portation flight to Jamaica.

The flight, which was due to take off

in the early hours today, had fewer than

20 convicted criminals on board. Origi-

nally 36 were due to leave but many did

not travel after a succession of legal

challenges this week.

Campaigners attempting to halt the

deportations appealed for lawyers

yesterday to act for two men who they

BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP; EDMUND PLATT/REAL PRESS

A

fter walking

for 59 days

and picking

up more than

6,

discarded facemasks

along the way, Ed Platt

could have been

forgiven for wanting a

rest in Paris (Adam Sage

writes).

Yet the British anti-

litter campaigner will

have no such luxury

amid a whirl of

interviews in the French

capital after putting

rubbish on the agenda in

a city that prefers to be

known for haute

couture.

Mr Platt, from Leeds,

has captured the media's

attention with his call to

change the ancestral

Parisian habit of

dropping litter and

feigning to ignore it.

The expat began his

campaign in his adoptive

home city of Marseilles,

where he founded an

association, 1 Déchet

par Jour (1 Piece of

Litter a Day), which

organises regular litter

picks. The most recent,

before the health crisis

in January, attracted

about 850 participants.

A couple of years ago,

he branched out to walk

5,000 miles around the

French coastline,

gathering litter and

writing a book about his

experience, L’Escargot

Anglais (The English

Snail).

Now he is tackling

what may prove his most

difficult challenge:

convincing Parisians not

only to stop throwing

cigarette butts, masks

and everything else on

to the pavement, but

also to pick up such

rubbish when they cross

it on the ground.

Mr Platt, 43, set out

for Paris on foot on

October 1 in the

company of a friend,

Frédéric Munsch, 40, a

photojournalist. On

most nights they slept

out, often in forests, but

they never went hungry

or thirsty, with locals

always willing to offer

food and drink. “I don’t

want to know how much

alcohol I drank,” Mr

Platt admitted.

The pair were stopped

seven times by police for

breaching the lockdown

rules but escaped

without the standard

€135 fine after

explaining their mission

to combat litter.

In the course of their

550-mile journey, they

stopped at schools to

talk to children about

the dangers of pollution.

“We’d say: ‘Who’s

seen someone throwing

a facemask on to the

ground?’,” Mr Platt said.

“They’d all put their

hands up.”

Expat on a mission to

rid France of rubbish

Ed Platt walked more

than 500 miles to Paris

collecting litter on the

way. He picked up more

than 6,000 facemasks

claimed would be at risk from flying

because of their high blood pressure.

The Movement for Justice said that six

detainees had been given “last-minute”

reprieves.

One of the men, who was still

scheduled to be deported, is a 57-year-

old father of five who has not been

convicted of any crime since his release

from jail six years ago, they claim.

The former Labour leader Jeremy

Corbyn and the former shadow chan-

cellor John McDonnell were among

nearly 70 MPs who signed a letter call-

ing for the flight to be delayed.

In a response to Clive Lewis, the

Labour MP who organised the letter,

Ms Patel, the home secretary, high-

lighted the “devastating impact” of

crimes committed by those on the flight

on victims and their families.

She said: “Take, for example, Mr A. He

was convicted of rape, served his time in

prison and put on the sex offenders reg-

ister. During his trial, his victim issued a

heartbreaking statement to the court

where she talked of the pain and suffer-

ing this caused her. Tomorrow morning,

we aim to deport her attacker.

“Or take Mr B, who violently mur-

dered a father of one and was sentenced

to life in prison. Tomorrow morning, we

aim to deport this murderer. So, when

you and other Labour MPs continue to

call for the government to stop this

flight, I would implore you to think of

the victims of these criminals’ shameful

offences.”

Criminals on the flight include a

paedophile convicted of having sex with

a girl aged under 16 and another person

who has committed 30 offences from

robbery to racially aggravated assault.

Ms Patel added: “There can be no

doubt that the idea of these deporta-

tions being halted at the last minute

only serves to re-traumatise [victims].

“Therefore, I would encourage you to

reconsider your position and stand in

solidarity with the victims of these

crimes by supporting the government’s

efforts to remove the dangerous,

unpredictable and violent foreign

nationals who committed them.”

On Monday Bell Ribeiro-Addy, La-

bour MP for Streatham, told the Com-

mons that no one opposing the flight

condoned the offences committed by

the criminals. “It’s the process of mass

deportation which is fundamentally

wrong,” she said. “It’s notorious for bun-

dling people out of the country without

due process.”

Mr Lewis said that the dangers for

criminals returning to Jamaica were

huge. “We know that five UK deportees

were killed between 2018 and 2019,” he

said.

Steven Swinford Deputy Political Editor

David Brown Chief News Correspondent

Deportation critics ‘hurt crime victims’