Windrush generation: Home Office ‘set them up to fail’, say MPs

The Home Office has “set immigrants up to fail” and the department must undergo total reform, a cross-party group of MPs has said.

A damning report on the Government’s treatment of the Windrush generation by the influential Home Affairs Select Committee said unless the department is overhauled the scandal “will happen again, for another group of people”.

The committee expressed concern for the children of EU citizens, saying the Government should ensure they are not “locked out of living a lawful life as we have seen happen to members of the Windrush generation”.

Recent attempts by the Government to rebrand its so-called “hostile environment” policy the “compliant environment”, were “meaningless”, the report found.

The document called for passport fees to be abolished for Windrush citizens; for a return to face-to-face immigration interviews; for immigration appeal rights and legal aid to be reinstated; and for the net migration target to be dropped.

The compensation scheme for Windrush citizens must recognise emotional distress as well as financial harm and must be open to Windrush children and grandchildren who were affected, the report said. It reiterated its call for a hardship fund, saying it should be established immediately for those in acute financial difficulty.

The report’s authors said they hoped to uncover the extent of the impact on the Windrush generation by the mishandling of their cases, but said “the government has not been able to answer many of our questions, including on the extent of the issue, and we have not had access to internal Home Office papers”.

In a statement, the committee said: “Thousands of people have been affected and denied their rights – with 8,000 referrals to the taskforce, and over 2,000 documents confirming status issued so far.

“It is unacceptable that the Home Office still cannot tell us the number of people who have been unlawfully detained, were told to report to Home Office centres, who lost their jobs, or were denied medical treatment or other services.”

Political decisions over a number of years had led to immigrants being under “suspicion”, the report said.

“A change in culture in the Home Office over recent years, as a consequence of political decisions and political leadership, has led to an environment in which applicants are automatically treated with suspicion and scepticism and have been forced to follow processes that appear designed to set them up to fail,” the MPs found.

Among the changes it suggested was a “a policy which will give the Home Office a more human face” by reintroducing face-to-face interviews, allowing discretion and judgement, and a system in which processes were more clearly explained.

It said the changes were “overdue and they should be implemented as a priority”.

The report later said: “We question whether the hostile environment should in fact continue in anything like its current form.

“Simply rebranding it as the ‘compliant’ environment is a meaningless response to genuine concerns.”

Previous reports by the committee said the Windrush generation suffered because the government’s hostile environment policy was too open to interpretation; immigration law was too complex; and the Home Office made too many errors.

In June the Home Affairs Select Committee accused ministers of presiding over “systemic failure” after examining the case files of Paulette Wilson and Anthony Bryan, two children of the Windrush generation.

Labour responded to the report by saying many questions remained unanswered by the Home Office.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said it was a “disgrace” the government had not published its plans for compensation for Windrush cases.

“It is an absolute disgrace that the government has still not come forward with a clear plan for compensation, and is refusing a hardship fund, even for people who have been made homeless or unemployed by their policies,” she said.

“The government should act immediately on these recommendations, including restoring immigration appeals and legal aid, and removing the net migration target. But this scandal will continue as long as the ‘hostile environment’ policy is in place, which treats people who are legally entitled to be here as if they are here illegally. This policy must go.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The experiences face d 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.

“A lessons learned review, which will have independent oversight, will help ensure that we have a clear picture of what went wrong and how we should take this forward. But in the meantime we are already reviewing existing safeguards to ensure that those who are here lawfully are not inadvertently disadvantaged by measures put in place to tackle illegal migration.

“At the same time, our taskforce is helping those who have struggled to demonstrate their right to be here are supported to do so and we have committed to setting up a compensation scheme.”