Windrush: 63 wrongly kicked out, says Javid

UP to 63 members of the Windrush generation may have been wrongly kicked out of Britain, the Home Secretary has admitted.

Sajid Javid revealed the shocking figure after a trawl of 8,000 Home Office records on immigrants deported or removed to the Caribbean since 2002.

Officials had been checking the documents amid fears that people who had been here lawfully for decades may have been forced to leave after being mistakenly declared as illegal immigrants.

Mr Javid made his admission to the Commons’ home affairs select committee yesterday, two weeks after his predecessor Amber Rudd resigned over the scandal. All 63 people are from the West Indies and aged over 45. It means some of them might have arrived in Britain before 1973 and therefore be entitled to an automatic right to stay.

Of this number, 32 were booted out because they had committed crimes, while 31 were subject to ‘administrative’ removals, which includes people sent a Home Office letter ordering them to leave.

Only last week Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes insisted the beleaguered department had not yet found a single wrongful deportation of a Windrush citizen.

Mr Javid told MPs the final figure could be even higher.

‘Out of the 8,000, there’s so far a focus on 63 where there’s something on their record that indicates they could have been in the UK before 1973,’ he said.

‘It’s not a final number at this point – it could change.’ Ministers have faced a furious backlash over the treatment of those who came from the Commonwealth between 1948 and 1973 to help rebuild postwar Britain.

Every Windrush migrant was given an automatic right to stay, but many never applied for passports or were formally naturalised.

Changes to immigration rules in 2014, dubbed the ‘hostile environment’ strategy, have meant some Windrush migrants have not been able to rent properties, work, open bank accounts, access NHS treatment or hold driving licences.

Ministers have repeatedly apologised for the ‘unintended and devastating’ impact of the crackdown.

Labour MP David Lammy said: ‘This is the worst human rights and home affairs crisis in my time in politics. The Prime Minister’s hostile environment stands in the dock, guilty as charged.’

Ministers have pledged that Windrush migrants and their children would be fast-tracked to UK citizenship for free and paid compensation for any hardship suffered and costs incurred. Speaking yesterday, Theresa May said: ‘The Windrush generation have a right to be here, they are British, they are part of us, and I think you see that reflected in the arrangements we have put in place.’

A dedicated helpline set up after the furore erupted has received more than 11,500 calls. Of those, 4,482 were identified as possible Windrush cases. So far 550 have received documents confirming their status.

The Home Office also disclosed that it has identified 17 non-Windrush cases since 2015 in which a person was returned to the UK after being removed.

‘Unintended and devastating’