Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Rudd DID know of immigration return targets
Fresh pressure on under-siege Home Sec to resign
BESIEGED Home Secretary Amber Rudd is under fresh pressure to quit after a bombshell leaked document suggested she knew about immigration targets.
It said her department had set “a target of 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/18”, it emerged last night.
The six-page memo also boasted of beating a target of “assisted returns”.
Ms Rudd, already facing calls to resign for the Windrush scandal, had claimed she was not aware of targets.
Yet the memo – by Hugh Ind, boss of Home Office agency Immigration Enforcement – was sent to her.
Urging Ms Rudd to quit, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: “She either failed to read it, and has no clear understanding of the policies in her department, or she’s misled Parliament and the British people.”
Ms Rudd had denied use of targets when questioned in the Commons on Wednesday about Windrush migrants lacking paperwork to prove they can live here. When it emerged the practise existed, she said she never agreed to its use for migrants.
But the memo, dated June 21, 2017, and passed to The Guardian, said: “IE has set a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18.
“This will move us towards the 10% increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year.”
It adds: “We’ve exceeded our target of assisted returns.” An example could be leaving voluntarily on a free flight. The Home Office did not comment.
It came as health chiefs blasted a visa cap blocking 400 badly needed GPS from outside Europe.
The Home Office said visas denied in oversubscribed months can be reapplied for.