A DAY OF NATIONAL DISGRACE
WINDRUSH OUTRAGE Rudd faces call to quit as she’s forced to admit Caribbean migrants to Britain could have been kicked out by mistake
AMBER Rudd yesterday admitted members of the ‘Windrush generation’ may have been kicked out of Britain by mistake.
the Home Secretary conceded she did not know whether Caribbean migrants who came here in good faith after the Second World War had been wrongly removed.
In farcical scenes, ministers at first appeared to admit some had been ‘horrendously’ kicked out, then insisted they hadn’t, and then said that they didn’t know.
Miss rudd faced a call to resign and was summoned to the Commons to apologise for the fiasco. Labour’s David Lammy told fellow MPs it was a ‘day of national shame’.
Campaigners insisted that at least one person had already been wrongly sent back to Jamaica.
It emerged at the weekend that Government officials had refused to meet Caribbean envoys to discuss the cases of those who came from the late 1940s to the 1970s to help rebuild post-war Britain.
Despite living here for decades, many have now mistakenly been told they are illegals under a Home Office crackdown on immigration paperwork. Some have lost their right to
work, rent property, receive pensions, access bank accounts and NHS care. Others have been told they risk detention and deportation.
The row turned toxic yesterday when immigration minister Caroline Nokes suggested there had been deportations. As ministers were branded ‘inhumane and cruel’:
Miss Rudd said the Home Office was ‘too concerned with policy and strategy, and sometimes lost sight of the individual’;
Commonwealth countries will be contacted to check whether anyone has been wrongly removed;
A taskforce will speed up the regularisation of immigration status for tens of thousands of citizens;
Cases will be resolved in two weeks and the £229 fee will be waived;
Theresa May performed a U-turn by agreeing to meet Caribbean leaders who have been raising concerns;
A cross-party group of 140 MPs wrote to the Prime Minister demanding ‘immediate and effective’ action.
Mrs Nokes made her comments in an interview with Channel 4 News. She said: ‘Potentially they have been deported and I’m conscious that it’s very much in error and that’s an error I want to put right.’
Then she told ITV News that some people had been booted out of the UK ‘horrendously’, adding: ‘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.’
In the aftermath of her interviews, officials insisted no one had been deported in the immigration crackdown.
But then in the Commons, Miss Rudd said she was not aware of any cases but was investigating and conceded some members of the ‘Windrush generation’ may have been wrongly sent back to the Caribbean.
She added: ‘That is why I have asked the High Commissioners if they know of any, that they should bring it to me.’
But last night, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) charity said at least one person had wrongly been sent back to Jamaica.
JCWI chief executive Satbir Singh told the Mail: ‘It is true, but it is very difficult to know how many people have been removed. What’s shocking is that the Government admits that it has no record of the numbers... the least they could have done is kept a record.’
Downing Street said Mrs May wanted to ensure that ‘no one with the right to be here will be made to leave’.
Ruth Davidson became one of the most high-profile Conservatives to intervene in the row as she condemned the ‘appalling’ treatment of the Windrush generation.
The Scottish Tory leader yesterday tweeted that she ‘couldn’t agree more’ with a newspaper leader attacking ‘draconian immigration rules’ that could force many out.
The piece called the UK Government’s treatment of those involved ‘appalling’ and urged ministers to step in following the ‘sickening development’ that has sparked outrage across the political divide.
Last night Miss Davidson said: ‘The Windrush generation have worked hard and contributed immensely to our country, and their status should never be in question. The UK is their rightful home and I look forward to this being sorted out beyond all doubt.
‘The Home Secretary is right to have apologised to those who have suffered fear or worry over this situation.’
Meanwhile, Barbados High Commissioner Guy Hewitt told the BBC: ‘Because they came from colonies which were not independent, they thought they were British subjects. And 40, 50 years on they are being told by the Home Office... [that]... they are illegal immigrants. Some have been detained, are still being detained. Others have been deported.’
Labour MP for Tottenham Mr Lammy told the Commons: ‘This is a day of national shame and it has come about because of a hostile environment policy.’
He tweeted: ‘I am disgusted by the Home Secretary’s response. She says she is worried that the Home Office is too concerned with policy and not concerned enough about individuals. Guess what, you’re in charge of the Home Office. You should be considering your position because of this.’
Tory MP Nigel Evans said he was ‘sickened’ by the treatment of Windrush citizens and called on the Home Secretary to carry out an ‘urgent review’ of cases where it was possible an individual had been deported.
Labour MP Lucy Powell said the Home Office was ‘going after soft targets’ rather than genuine illegal immigrants.
The new Home Office taskforce, with 20 personnel, will help individuals identify and gather evidence to confirm their right to be in the UK.
The team will work with HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health and Department for Education and other bodies to seek relevant information, including exam certificates, employment records, National Insurance numbers, birth and marriage certificates, or bills and letters.
Fees for sorting out the paperwork of those affected will be waived. Cases will be dealt with in two weeks once the evidence is gathered. Miss Rudd said there would be a ‘presumption’ that individuals would be allowed to stay unless they had committed serious crimes.
The Migration Observatory at Oxford University estimates there are 500,000 people resident in the UK who were born in a Commonwealth country and arrived before 1971.