Windrush scandal
The March 2020 independent Windrush Lessons Learned Review,[11][12] conducted by the inspector of constabulary Wendy Williams, concluded that the Home Office had shown "ignorance and thoughtlessness" and that what had happened had been "foreseeable and avoidable".
It further found that immigration regulations were tightened "with complete disregard for the Windrush generation" and that officials had made "irrational" demands for multiple documents to establish residency rights.
This provision was not transferred to 2014 immigration legislation because Commonwealth citizens living in the UK before 1 January 1973 were "adequately protected from removal", according to a Home Office spokesperson.
[41] In November 2020, the EHRC said that the Home Office had broken the law by failing to obey public-sector equality duties by not considering how its policies affected black members of the Windrush generation.
[43] The Home Office received warnings from 2013 onwards that many Windrush generation residents were being treated as illegal immigrants and that older Caribbean-born people were being targeted.
[51] In January 2018, the Home Affairs Select Committee issued a report that said the hostile environment policies were "unclear" and had seen too many people threatened with deportation based on "inaccurate and untested" information.
[34] A month before the report was published, more than 60 MPs, academics and campaign groups wrote an open letter to Amber Rudd urging the Government to halt the "inhumane" policy, citing the Home Office's "poor track record" of dealing with complaints and appeals in a timely manner.
[17][52] Although they were primarily identified as the "Windrush generation" and mainly from the Caribbean, it was estimated in April 2018 on figures provided by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford that up to 57,000 Commonwealth migrants could be affected, of whom 15,000 were from Jamaica.
[55][56][57] The press coverage accused Home Office agencies of operating a "guilty until proven innocent" and "deport first, appeal later" regime; of targeting the weakest groups, particularly those from the Caribbean; of inhumanely applying regulations by cutting off access to jobs, services and bank accounts while cases were still being investigated; of losing large numbers of original documents that proved right to remain; of making unreasonable demands for documentary proof – in some instances, elderly people had been asked for four documents for each year they had lived in the UK; and of leaving people stranded outside the UK because of British administrative errors or intransigence and denial of medical treatment.
[citation needed] The Home Office and British government were further accused of having known about the negative impacts that the "hostile environment policy" was having on Windrush immigrants since as early as 2013 and of having done nothing to remedy them.
[68][69] Those highlighting the issue included journalists Amelia Gentleman and Gary Younge, Caribbean diplomats Kevin Isaac, Seth George Ramocan and Guy Hewitt,[26][47][55][58][70] and British politicians Herman Ouseley and David Lammy MP.
On 14 March, when Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn asked May about an individual who had been refused medical treatment under the NHS during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, May initially said she was "unaware of the case", but later agreed to "look into it".
On 16 April 2018, David Lammy MP challenged Amber Rudd in the House of Commons to give numbers as to how many had lost their jobs or homes, been denied medical care, or been detained or deported wrongly.
[37][38] On 2 May 2018, the opposition Labour Party introduced a motion in the House of Commons seeking to force the government to release documents to the Home Affairs Select Committee concerning its handling of cases involving people who came to the UK from Commonwealth countries between 1948 and the 1970s.
[82][83] The New Statesman said that the leaked memo gave "in specific detail the targets set by the Home Office for the number of people to be removed from the United Kingdom.
[91] Shortly before, Javid, while still Communities Secretary, had said in a Sunday Telegraph interview, "I was really concerned when I first started hearing and reading about some of the issues ... My parents came to this country ... just like the Windrush generation ...
[95][96] On 15 May 2018, Javid told the Home Affairs Select Committee that 63 people had thus far been identified as having been possibly wrongly deported, though stating the figure was provisional and could rise.
[67] By late June, long delays were being reported in processing "leave to remain" applications due to the large numbers of people contacting the Home Office.
[67] Following complaints by ministers, the Home Office was reported in April 2018 to have set up an inquiry to investigate where the leaked documents that led to Rudd's departure came from.
The report found that "a change in culture in the Home Office over recent years" had led to an environment in which applicants had been "forced to follow processes that appear designed to set them up to fail".
[3] The report commented that they had hoped to uncover the extent of the impact on the Windrush generation, but that the government had "not been able to answer many of our questions ... and we have not had access to internal Home Office papers".
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said it was a "disgrace" that the government had not yet published "a clear plan for compensation" for Windrush cases and that it had refused to institute a hardship fund, "even for people who have been made homeless or unemployed by their policies".
[79] Figures released on 5 June by immigration minister Caroline Nokes revealed that in the 12 months prior to March 2018, 991 seats had been booked on commercial flights by the Home Office to remove people to the Caribbean who were suspected of being in the UK illegally.
[110] In November 2018, in a monthly update to the Home Affairs Select Committee, Javid said there were 83 cases in which it had already been confirmed that people had been wrongfully deported, and officials feared there might be a further 81.
[117][118] On 21 February 2019, the Jamaican High Commissioner to the UK called for a halt to deportations to Jamaica until the Home Office had published its investigation into the Windrush scandal.
The caseworker replied, "Well I'm afraid these are the immigration rules, ... but obviously the Home Office point of view [is] if you don't have a legal status in the UK you're not entitled to work or study."
[17] The scandal drew attention to other issues relating to UK migration policy and practice, including treatment of other migrants,[139][140][141] and of asylum seekers and what the status of EU nationals living in Britain would be after Brexit.
It further found that immigration regulations were tightened "with complete disregard for the Windrush generation", and that officials had made "irrational" demands for multiple documents to establish residency rights.
[13] In March 2022, a progress report on the Learned Review concluded that the Home Office has broken pledges to transform its culture after the Windrush inquiry, warning that the scandal could be repeated.
[152][153] In June 2020, BBC Television screened an 85-minute, one-off drama, Sitting in Limbo, starring Patrick Robinson as Anthony Bryan, who was caught up in the effects of the hostile environment policy.
