Dawn Butler leads calls for humanitarian visas and fee waivers for vulnerable relatives of UK nationals affected by storm
British MPs have joined campaigners calling for more aid and humanitarian visas for Jamaicans to enter the UK after Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of the country, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into a humanitarian crisis.
The UK has pledged £7.5m emergency funds to Jamaica and other islands affected by the hurricane, but many argue that the country has a moral obligation to do more for former Caribbean colonies.
Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent East and chair of the UK’s all-party parliamentary group on Jamaica, posted on X a letter she had written to the home secretary requesting temporary humanitarian visas and fee waivers for vulnerable relatives of UK nationals affected by the storm.
Butler said that at an emergency meeting in her constituency, which has one of the UK’s largest Jamaican populations, there were calls to ease visa restrictions for children and elderly people affected by the hurricane who could stay with relatives in the UK.
