Not covered
editSketchy list of topics not covered clearly at present IMO - some of which may belong at "hostile environment policy". How/why affected children born in UK
Better summary of Parliamentary stages (compensation scheme, hotline etc)(Rudd, May and Javid), changes made by Javid, internal enquiry etc.
Hostile environment criticised by others (Warsi etc)
NHS etc required to share data with Home Office as part of HEPolicy - later amended partly due to Lords during scandal.
Review of use of anti-terror laws vis-a-vis HEPolicy - mainly non-Windrush.
Broader issues - immigration caps - immigration policy. (partly done)
Legal Action Group report 2013
Sources not currently used
editBeebCorbynsays used: But Conservative former Communities Secretary Baroness Warsi said ministers should "think long and hard about the trauma" caused to families by their immigration policies - calling again on the government to drop its "unrealistic" target of reducing annual net migration to below 100,000 a year.
IndyHASCreport used: and reported that employers had restricted access to job vacancies, as a result of the policy in ways which were illegal. (There are reports of employers restricting access to job vacancies, for example by insisting that all non-EU applicants provide a biometric residence permit – despite this only applying to recent arrivals, or by limiting the vacancy to applicants with British passports – which is illegal.)
The hostile environment policy includes measures to limit access to work, housing, healthcare, and bank accounts, to revoke driving licences and to reduce and restrict rights of appeal against Home Office decisions.
The assessment made a string of recommendations, including an annual report setting out a three-year, a rolling plan for migration, a new “framework of targets” to replace the Government's net migration target and an immigration system which treats different skills differently.
It also recommended ministers introduce a more proactive approach to challenging “myths and inaccuracies” about immigration, no diminution of the UK's approach to international humanitarian obligations and the development of a national integration strategy.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/24/home-office-charges-families-struggle-to-pay-money-making-machine 'A money-making machine': families struggle to pay Home Office charges
Government knew for years that Windrush generation hurt by 'hostile environment' more Warsi
Former Middlesex fast bowler in immigration limbo for seven years
Government measures of reducing illegal immigration undermine credibility in the system due to high instances of inaccuracies and error, an influential group of MPs has warned.
The hostile environment policy … … to revoke driving licences and to reduce and restrict rights of appeal against Home Office decisions.
a whole catalogue of extreme official meanness,
for years, the government’s approach to Windrush children with immigration problems has been both absurd and cruel.
For years it has been left to tiny charities like Praxis and St Mungo’s in London and the Refugee and Migrant Centre in Wolverhampton to pick up the shattered lives of Windrush generation people fighting to regularise their immigration status. They will be watching to see whether their case load reduces in the wake of these announcements, or if the official policy of cruelty will persist.
GdnMorecompass (used)
Usually, entry documents to the UK were marked with permanent right to reside stamps, but children were often included on other people’s passports, or have lost their documents.
Letters[2]
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/22/pressure-grows-on-theresa-may-and-amber-rudd-over-windrush-scandal Pressure grows on May and Rudd over Windrush scandal Sayeeda Warsi says fault with ‘hostile environment’ lies with policy itself not implementation
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-44658073/windrush-home-office-are-a-law-unto-themselves Windrush: Home Office are 'a law unto themselves' Harriet Harman, told Today "a very big change" needs to happen in the Home Office because they are "a law unto themselves'
A former Home Office employee has, meanwhile, told The Guardian that thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants' arrival dates in the UK were destroyed in 2010 during an office move.
The former worker, who is not named by the newspaper, said managers were warned by staff that destroying the cards would make it harder to check the records of older Caribbean-born residents experiencing difficulties proving their right to remain in the UK.
- New
991 deportation flights booked to Caribbean in year before Windrush row
The data provided reveals that in a two-year period from 2015 to 2017, the government spent £52m on all deportation flights, including £17.7m on charter flights. The costs for the most recent 12-month period to March are not available but Nokes said no charter flights had been operated to the Caribbean in that time.
Virgin airlines says it will no longer help to deport immigrants
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/04/windrush-scandal-no-passport-for-thousands-who-moved-to-britain Windrush scandal: no passport for thousands who moved to Britain
New census data shows that about 21,000 people who moved to the UK before 1971 have neither a British passport nor a passport from the country where they were born, giving the strongest picture so far of the possible scale of the Windrush scandal.
The data reveals the number of people who may experience difficulty in proving that they are in the UK legally.
About 5,200 of the people without passports were born in Caribbean countries, according to the data, suggesting there may be many more non-Windrush people struggling to prove they are not illegal immigrants.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/10/theresa-may-defends-uk-governments-windrush-response Theresa May defends UK government's Windrush response June 10
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/16/windrush-u-turn-welcome-but-theresa-may-policy-cruel Windrush U-turn is welcome, but May's policy was just cruel This is an extraordinary government U-turn. It is remarkable that officials have decided they want to be sensitive today, when for months they have been holding an obstinately firm line on this issue. Repeatedly, when the Guardian has contacted the Home Office to highlight cases of people who have lost their jobs, their homes, or been unable to get passports to travel to visit dying parents, officials have indicated that the fault lies with the individual, for failing to provide enough evidence of their right to be here.
Equally, it’s hard to understand why Home Office staff and police needed to take a battering ram to smash down Anthony Bryan’s door when they came early one Sunday morning last November to detain him. He opened the door willingly when they arrived, so it wasn’t used; he was taken into detention for the second time, despite having lived an entirely law-abiding life in this country for more than 50 years, working and paying taxes.
Small details of official callousness are particularly upsetting. Judy Griffith, 63, who came from Barbados in 1963 when she was nine, had been trying to sort out her status for years, and queued for five hours in a Home Office processing centre on 27 December, to be told that, although officials believed her claim was valid, she was “not on the system”. She received a letter in January stating that new checks needed to be made, adding: “Please note it is no longer possible to make an enquiry in person. Please telephone the number on this letter in the first instance if you need to contact us.” There was no telephone number on the letter.
For years it has been left to tiny charities like Praxis and St Mungo’s in London and the Refugee and Migrant Centre in Wolverhampton to pick up the shattered lives of Windrush generation people fighting to regularise their immigration status. They will be watching to see whether their case load reduces in the wake of these announcements, or if the official policy of cruelty will persist.
Amber Rudd 'sorry' for appalling treatment of Windrush-era citizens She made a significant criticism of her own department, adding: “I am concerned that the Home Office has become too concerned with policy and strategy and sometimes loses sight of the individual. This is about individuals, and we have heard the individual stories, some of which have been terrible to hear.”
In the face of mounting criticism, Amber Rudd announced the creation of a new Home Office team, staffed by 20 officials, dedicated to ensuring that Commonwealth-born long-term UK residents will no longer find themselves classified as illegal immigrants. She promised that cases would be resolved within two weeks and application fees would be waived.
Home Office official tells man facing deportation: 'My job is to piss you off'
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/21/anger-over-windrush-scandal-overshadows-anniversary-plans Abbott has asked Javid for the precise number of Windrush people wrongly deported, and also the number of those forced into “voluntary” deportation before any threat of forcible deportation, as well as the number of people refused their right to re-entry and barred from returning after trips abroad
Equalities campaigner Gus John said he was surprised and bemused to have been invited to the event.
In an open letter to May, he said the “hostile environment” policies she introduced as home secretary had condemned “long-retired workers of the Windrush generation to uncertainty, misery, physical hardship and denial of the same life-saving health services for which they had paid throughout their working lives”.
He said he stood “with those who suffered detention, deportation and mental ill health” as a result of government policies. “It would be a shameful betrayal to them all to accept your invitation and join you in Downing Street to mark the arrival of the Windrush 70 years ago and the contribution to British society of those whom it brought and their descendants,” he wrote.
She is also asking for the number of people from the Windrush generation who have been detained in immigration removal centres, and for a total number of people who have lost their jobs, been made homeless and been barred from accessing benefits or health services. She asked for an update on a “full review of lessons learned” promised by Theresa May on 2 May. “Lessons can only be learned if there is complete transparency regarding the causes and human impact of the Windrush crisis,” she said. Equalities campaigner Gus John said he was surprised and bemused to have been invited to the event.
In an open letter to May, he said the “hostile environment” policies she introduced as home secretary had condemned “long-retired workers of the Windrush generation to uncertainty, misery, physical hardship and denial of the same life-saving health services for which they had paid throughout their working lives”.
He said he stood “with those who suffered detention, deportation and mental ill health” as a result of government policies. “It would be a shameful betrayal to them all to accept your invitation and join you in Downing Street to mark the arrival of the Windrush 70 years ago and the contribution to British society of those whom it brought and their descendants,” he wrote.
“full review of lessons learned”
HASC-Mr Javid said the Labour motion would divert resources "into a massive, open-ended fishing expedition".
Similarly, the estimated 144,000 undocumented children living in the UK represents another potential Home Office scandal, unless lessons from Windrush are learned, the committee warns. This “is a problem the government must solve. A failure to do so will leave many in a precarious position, unable to study, work or seek the support of social security as they transition into adulthood”, the committee states.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The experiences faced by some members of the Windrush generation are inexcusable and it is clear that we must do what is needed to ensure that nothing like this happens again. The home secretary has said that it is his top priority to right the wrongs that have occurred.
http://www.itv.com/news/2018-06-03/home-offices-hostile-environment-faces-review-after-windrush-sajid-javid/ Sajid Javid says Home Office’s ‘hostile environment’ towards immigrants to be reviewed after Windrush
- ^ Gentleman, Amelia (16 April 2018). "Windrush U-turn is welcome, but May's policy was just cruel". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
{{cite news}}: line feed character in|title=at position 39 (help) - ^ Letters (15 April 2018). "A Home Office humanity test | Letters". the Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2018.