Seven incarcerated foreign nationals have been deported to their home countries, the Ministry of Home Affairs has announced.

The inmates, originally from Jamaica, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and St Maarten, were flown out on Sunday thanks to a collaboration between the Department of Immigration, the Department of Corrections, the Royal Bermuda Regiment and their local immigration authorities.

The inmates were all due to be released from prison between this year and 2020 and had been approved for early release by the Governor.

Michael Fahy, the Minister of Home Affairs, said: “Over the past year, the Department of Immigration has been faced with many challenges regarding the deportation of foreign nationals who have been incarcerated in Bermuda for a range of offences.

“As a result of recent restrictions imposed by Bermuda’s gateway countries — United States, Canada and the United Kingdom — the deportation process has been extremely difficult, thereby making it virtually impossible to secure passage through any of the aforementioned countries.

“As a consequence of the information above, the Department of Immigration feverishly explored several options to deport the foreign nationals including, but not limited to, chartering a corporate aircraft for each deportation, which had the potential of being extremely costly for the Bermuda Government.

“Upon learning that the Royal Bermuda Regiment was planning to hold their annual overseas camp in Kingston, Jamaica, the Department of Immigration capitalised on this opportunity by arranging a deportation exercise led by the Department of Immigration’s compliance section.”

Three of the inmates had previously been approved for early release, while the early release of the other four was approved last Wednesday.

“Between Wednesday and Sunday, the Department of Immigration, in collaboration with Government House, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Department of Corrections, and the Ministry of National Security worked tirelessly to ensure that the necessary processes and protocols were followed, thereby making it possible to deport a total of seven foreign nationals out of Bermuda,” Sen Fahy said.

“This is good news for the taxpayer as it means that we will no longer be paying the incarceration fees and associated costs for these individuals.

“This exercise would not have been possible had it not been for the countless hours of hard work, dedication and collaboration between all agencies involved.”

The issues facing foreign nationals imprisoned in Bermuda was recently raised in the court case of Leighton Griffiths who, after serving a third of his sentence, found he was ineligible for parole because he would likely be deported upon his release.

While he was otherwise eligible, inmates must have permission to reside on the island to be paroled.

Legislation does allow prisoners of certain nationalities to be repatriated and released on parole, but a Court of Appeal judgment dated April 1 stated that Jamaica and Bermuda did not have such an agreement.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Home Affairs was unable to confirm by press time last night if Griffiths was one of the Jamaican nationals repatriated.