Home Affairs Committee demands major reforms to prevent another Windrush scandal

Protest against the hostile environment policy - Image credit: PA

The Home Office must instigate major reforms or risk another Windrush scandal happening “all over again to others in future,” a powerful group of MPs has said.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee said the kind of “appalling injustice” suffered by Windrush children could only be avoided through “root and branch” reform of immigration policy.

In a new report, the MPs urged ministers to scrap the controversial net migration target and demanded a rethink of the so-called ‘hostile’ or ‘compliant’ environment for illegal immigrants.

The Home Affairs Committee said policy choices and political decisions had led to a “hostile culture and callous” immigration system that hit British citizens who lacked documentation.

Labour chair of the committee Yvette Cooper said: “The new Home Secretary [Sajid Javid] has a great deal of work to do before the UK has a humane and fair immigration system.

“The Windrush generation, who have contributed so much to Britain, have been badly let down.

“The Home Office has a responsibility to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again.”

The committee called for an appeals process for rejected Windrush cases, a hardship fund and the publication of the redacted Home Office guidance for the Windrush taskforce.

It also demanded an overhaul of casework culture, the restoration of immigration appeals and legal aid and the removal of the tens of thousands net migration target.

And it hit out at Javid's attempt to rebrand the ‘hostile environment’ agenda taken up by Theresa May when she led the department.

“We question whether the hostile environment should continue in anything like its current form," the MPs argued.

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

Labour said the report was “damning” and blasted ministers for failing to come forward with a compensation plan or hardship fund.

And SNP MP Stuart McDonald, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, added that the Home Office's review into the Windrush scandal must be published in full so that it can be scrutinised by MPs.

He said: “The Prime Minister’s obsession with her bogus net migration target means concerns over poor decision-making, lack of appeal rights, lack of legal aid, destitution, and basic common decency have simply been ignored. 

“It’s time for the Home Office to completely rethink its approach to immigration, and to ditch the nasty culture and practices that have dogged the department for decades.

“The review under way by the Home Office must take a serious and thorough look at its policies and conduct, and bring forward its conclusions in full for scrutiny and debate.”