‘Appalled’ Rudd’s apology to Windrush generation
HOME Secretary Amber Rudd yesterday apologised to members of the “Windrush generation” who faced deportation from the UK despite having the right to live here.
She said a new task force would speed up the process of adjusting the immigration status of people who arrived in the UK as long ago as the 1940s.
Ms Rudd’s statement to MPs came as immigration minister Caroline Nokes appeared to suggest some people may already have been deported in error.
But Ms Rudd said she was unaware of “any specific cases” and would raise the issue with high commissioners.
Earlier, Downing Street said Prime Minister Theresa May wanted to ensure “no one with the right to be here will be made to leave”.
Ms Rudd told MPs: “I do not want any of the Commonwealth citizens who are here legally to be impacted in the way they have. Frankly, some of the ways they have been treated has been wrong, has been appalling, and I am sorry.
“I am concerned that the Home Office has become too concerned with policy and strategy and sometimes loses sight of the individual.”
Challenged
Mrs May will meet counterparts from Caribbean states in the margins of the Commonwealth summit in London today, amid growing anger about people facing the threat of deportation and being denied access to healthcare due to UK paperwork issues.
Ms Rudd was challenged in the House of Commons over an interview in which Ms Nokes appeared to confirm that some Windrush migrants had been wrongly deported.
“There have been some horrendous situations which, as a minister, have appalled me,” Ms Nokes told ITV News.
“I don’t know the numbers, but what I am determined to do going forward is to say we will have no more of this.”
Ms Rudd’s announcement came after a cross-party group of 140 MPs called for an “immediate and effective” response to the problem.
Senior Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg criticised the Home Office, describing its treatment of the people as “a deep disgrace” and “shameful”.