Javid: we cannot find Windrush deportees
JUST three of 63 Windrush migrants who may have been wrongfully deported from the UK have been contacted about their cases, the Home Secretary has revealed.
Sajid Javid yesterday confirmed that of all the Windrush generation migrants who had been identified as potentially wrongfully removed, three had been contacted by the special task force set up in the wake of the scandal.
The Home Office has had to revisit 8,000 deportation cases dating back to 2002 following reports of the wrongful removal of Commonwealth nationals who may have been granted with indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
So far the department has identified 63 deported individuals. Of these, 32 involved criminals and the remaining 31 left the UK after being asked to do so by the Home Office.
In a letter to Yvette Cooper, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, Mr Javid said: “The 31 individuals are being proactively contacted via the task force where we have contact details. We have so far made contact with three and are asking High Commissioners to assist where we do not have contact details.”
Commonwealth nationals who settled in the UK before 1973 were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK under the 1971 Immigration Act. They were not, however, automatically provided with official paperwork, which led to some of them having to prove to authorities their right to be in the UK.
The Government is also under increasing pressure from MPS to reveal how many of the Windrush migrants have been detained in immigration centres. Mr Javid said this could take up to two months to identify.
In the letter to Ms Cooper Mr Javid said: “As with the removals exercise, this is a complex piece of work which involves manually examining thousands of cases in order to see whether there is anything on the record which suggests that someone could have been here before 1973 – likely to be a much smaller number.
“Officials believe that their initial investigations are likely to take between six and eight weeks.”
Ms Cooper has put on record her “concern” at the Home Office’s progress on the scandal so far.
Responding to Mr Javid, she said: “It remains a real concern that only three of the 63 potential wrongful deportations and removals have been contacted so far, and that it will take a further six weeks for the Home Office to assess how many people may have been wrongfully detained.”