The Home Secretary apologised to the 18 deported people of Caribbean Commonwealth nationality, but for the remaining cases there were few words.
It probably felt like too little, too late for those members of the Windrush generation that found themselves, deported, detained or threatened with deportation over the past years, when Sajid Javid officially apologised on Tuesday.
The acknowledgement followed a review of a whopping 11,800 cases reported. Yet only 18 were considered “most likely to have suffered detriment because their right to be in the UK was not recognised.”
The Home Secretary said he wanted to personally apologised to “those identified in our review” and pledged to deliver support and compensation for what they’ve gone through.
But the government also pointed out to a further 164 cases of people who had been detained or even removed, despite having indications on their files that they had been in Britain since before January 1973. And to those Javid had little to say.
Commenting on the further 164 cases of people affected by the Windrush scandal, the Home Secretary said:
“It is clear from our internal analysis of these that features of individual cases are markedly different.
“The way in which each individual was treated by the department, and the degree of detriment suffered, varied considerably.”
Labour backbencher David Lammy, whose parents were part of the generation of Afro-Caribbeans who came to Britain in a post-war effort to rebuild the country, said the apology was insufficient.
Lammy, who is the MP for Tottenham, took to Twitter saying:
“This is a drop in the ocean & just spin until we know full numbers deported, detained & those hounded out of their home country by the home office. Apology is crocodile tears & an insult to people still not given hardship fund, left jobless, homeless & unable to afford food.”
He also pointed out that the figures released by the government give little information on how long it is taking most of those affected by the Tories’ draconian immigration rules to resolve their problem and resume life as normal.
According to @sajidjavid 6,507 people contacted the #Windrush taskforce, were considered possible #Windrush and referred for a call back to progress their case. 2,272 people have now been given documentation confirming their status.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 21, 2018
Home Office shows cases as either being dealt with within 2 weeks or outside of that time-frame. No details about just how long some of these cases are taking. https://t.co/EA2pJBf0FW pic.twitter.com/qGM96fR1Zp
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 21, 2018
Shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, chimed saying the atonement was “overdue” and “nowehere near good enough.”
Javid, however, insisted on pointing out in a letter to the Commons Home Affairs committee chair, Labour’s Yvette Cooper, that four deportations and two detentions happened before the Tories came into power with the 2010 coalition.
Joana Ramiro is a reporter for Left Foot Forward. You can follow her on Twitter for all sorts of rants here.
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