The Jamaican government has called on the Home Office to halt a controversial deportation flight to the island nation scheduled to leave on Wednesday due to concerns over “importing” the Delta variant of Covid, the Guardian has learned. A flight was scheduled to take off from Birmingham airport but is now due to take off from Stansted in the early hours of Wednesday morning. About 18 people are due to be deported. Many of those due to be removed have convictions for drug offences, some relatively minor ones and some more major. It is understood many of those due to board the flight have not been deemed dangerous in assessments by Home Office officials. Many have British children and some have partners who are key workers, such as nurses for the NHS. The flight has been beset with problems, including claims by lawyers that one man, Sanjay McLean, 41, has a right to British citizenship under Windrush rules as his father, Alpheus Thompson, arrived in the UK from Jamaica in December 1958 and became a British citizen. McLean received a conviction for actual bodily harm in 2014. On Tuesday evening, two people who were due to fly were taken to hospital after apparent suicide attempts. It is estimated the current number of people due to fly is between eight and 11. There have been at least two Covid cases confirmed among Jamaicans due to board the flight at Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow where the majority due to fly are being held. Some of the others were asked to isolate after close contact with those who had tested positive. Several people deported to Jamaica last December were found to have Covid. The Jamaican high commissioner is among a number of senior government officials to have sent an urgent letter to the Home Office just hours before the Jamaicans are due to be collected from detention centres to be taken to the airport, calling for the flight to be halted due to concerns about the Covid cases and spread of the Delta variant of the virus. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has raised concerns over Covid infection control during pre-flight procedures. The IMB pointed out that being tested for Covid prior to boarding a charter flight is not mandatory, although temperatures are taken and masks are offered to all of those being removed. Lou Lockhart-Mummery, the chair of the IMB’s charter flight monitoring team, told the Guardian: “We have raised concerns with the Home Office about poor operation of social distancing measures during the pre-flight procedures: the collection, muster and search processes.” Escorts who work for the Home Office contractors Mitie have raised concerns about having to remove detainees, some of whom have refused Covid tests and have refused to wear masks. They have also expressed concern about a lack of compensation if they are forced to isolate due to Covid cases on flights. Covid cases have been confirmed on several recent summer deportation flights including a flight to Zimbabwe last month. A spokesperson for Mitie said: “We have robust measures to ensure a safe environment for all. This includes detailed risk assessments and procedures which have been developed in line with the latest government guidance, as well as the use of PPE such as face masks.” The issue of deporting people who have lived most of their lives in the UK remains politically contentious. Last November the Home Office made an agreement with the Jamaican high commission not to remove people who came to the UK under the age of 12, but the agreement has not been extended to this flight. Several people who arrived in the UK as minors were still scheduled for deportation on the flight. The Home Office said that a person’s age on arrival to the UK did not exempt them from deportation. Four women who had appointments booked to say a final farewell to their partners who are due to board the charter flight to Jamaica said they were denied the chance to say goodbye to them. The women said they arrived at the detention centre only to be informed they were no longer going to be permitted to see their partners. One of the women told the Guardian: “I don’t know what to say. This is so cruel not allowing us to say goodbye. There isn’t any humanity in the immigration system.” A Home Office source said: “Due to an administrative error, visits were booked at a time that individuals were due to be collected for the flight. We sincerely apologise for this.” Karen Doyle, of Movement for Justice, who has been campaigning against the flight, said: “These flights sweep up everyone. Mentally and physically unwell people, elderly, victims of trafficking and childhood abuse, care leavers and loving parents. They can’t be said to be about protecting the public when many have been out of prison for years with zero reoffending.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “We only ever return those with no legal right to remain in the UK, including foreign national offenders. Those being deported will have been provided with the opportunity to raise claims prior to their deportation, and no one on the flight will be a British citizen, British national or a member of the Windrush generation. We regularly operate charter flights to different countries and in 2020 only 1% of our enforced returns were to Jamaica.” The Jamaica high commission has been approached for comment.