‘Reform Home Office after Windrush scandal’

A COMMITTEE of MPs has demanded “root and branch reform” of the Home Office’s culture, policies and approach to immigration following the Windrush scandal.

A report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) questioned whether the “hostile environment” approach promoted by Theresa May as home secretary should be allowed to continue in its current form.

It blamed the “appalling” treatment of long-standing UK residents of Caribbean heritage on political decisions which created an environment in which they were treated with suspicion and scepticism.

And it warned that, unless lessons are learned, the Home Office may repeat the same mistakes with the three million EU nationals resident in the UK who are being required to take on a new migrant status following Brexit.

Some 8,000 people who arrived in the UK as long ago as the 1950s have now contacted the Windrush task force set up by the Home Office, with more than 2,000 receiving documents confirming their right to stay in Britain.

But the committee said it was “unacceptable” that the Government was still unable to say how many people were unlawfully detained.

Processes were put in place which appeared designed to set people up to fail, independent checks and balances were removed and there were repeated failures in oversight mechanisms at senior levels of the Home Office, said the cross-party committee.

The report called for an immediate re-evaluation of the “hostile environment”, which tries to deter illegal migrants by requiring people to prove their right to be in the UK in order to access work, healthcare and housing.