Jamaica steps up push for £7.6billion in reparations for slavery with formal petition to King Charles

Thank you for subscribing!

Successive British governments have consistently refused to entertain slavery reparations

A Jamaican government delegation has touched down in London carrying a formal petition addressed to King Charles, demanding £7.6billion in reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.

The Caribbean nation is intensifying its campaign for redress by appealing directly to Buckingham Palace, alongside planned discussions with the Foreign Office.

Central to Jamaica's argument is the historical injustice of Britain's 1833 abolition settlement, which directed compensation exclusively to slave owners rather than the enslaved.

That £20million payment, equivalent to 40 per cent of the Treasury's yearly revenue at the time, required such substantial borrowing that the resulting loan was not fully repaid until 2015.

Jamaican culture minister Olivia Grange, speaking upon her arrival in Britain, drew a direct line between past and present: "Up to 2015, Britain was paying the slave masters because we were considered property."

She pressed the point further: "The question really should be: if in modern times we're still paying back the slave masters for the 'property' that was our ancestors, because of the abolition of slavery, why shouldn't we be pursuing some remedy at this time?"

Ms Grange conceded that certain British taxpayers may resist the idea of a payout.

However, she expressed confidence that most people "may consider answers are required."

The petition requests that Charles, in his capacity as Jamaica's head of state, refer three specific legal questions to the Privy Council's Judicial Committee, the supreme appellate court for Commonwealth nations.

The delegation wants the five-judge panel to determine whether enslaving Africans in Jamaica was lawful under English law, whether it contravened international law, and whether Britain bears a present-day legal obligation to offer redress.

A royal source indicated that the monarch holds no personal discretion over Privy Council referrals.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman stated: "His Majesty has on many occasions expressed his commitment to finding ways to address historic wrongs for the benefit of communities today."

Successive British governments have consistently refused to entertain slavery reparations.

Beyond the reparations campaign, Ms Grange has arranged meetings with British Museum officials to request the repatriation of three Taino carvings.

The artefacts, depicting a birdman, a rain-making deity, and a vessel used for ritual drug consumption, were discovered in a Jamaican cave in 1792 before being transported to Britain.

The Taino were Jamaica's indigenous people, largely exterminated following European colonisation, with disease playing a significant role in their destruction.

The delegation's visit takes place against the backdrop of one of history's largest forced migrations: upwards of 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic between the 16th and 19th centuries, with many destined for British-owned sugar plantations in Jamaica.