LONDON – Prime Minister Theresa May has announced an internal UK HomeOffice review of its handling of the so-called Windrush immigrationscandal, even as the opposition warned that Indian-origin Britons arelikely to be among the immigrants affected by the issue.
The prime minister told MPs in the House of Commons that “speed is of theessence” and that new Home Secretary Sajid Javid “will be commissioning afull review of lessons learned, independent oversight and externalchallenge”.
“The review will have full access to all relevant information in the HomeOffice, including policy papers and casework decisions,” she said, as thescandal continued to dominate parliamentary proceedings in the country.
In an Opposition Day Debate in the Commons titled ‘Windrush and the PrimeMinister’s Policy of creating a hostile environment’, the Labour partywarned that the scandal engulfs immigrants from many Commonwealthcountries, including “those who came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh”.
“This is an issue that has resonated around the Commonwealth. At a timewhen we are trying to build our relationship with the Commonwealthpost-Brexit for trade and other reasons, it is extremely damaging what hasbeen revealed about the way Commonwealth citizens have been treated,” saidLabour MP Diane Abbott, the UK’s shadow home secretary.
She made a specific reference to overseas doctors, many of them from India,being denied visas to come and work for the state-funded National HealthService (NHS) and termed as “grotesque” the government “wrongly removing”students, many among them from India, over a controversial English languagetest dating back a few years.
“The NHS is suffering, the education system is suffering, all because of anarrative that deems immigration as toxic,” Abbot said, demanding “justice”for all migrants.
Javid responded by vowing to do “whatever it takes” to put things right andhelping everyone affected by the Windrush scandal.
The issue has caused turmoil for the UK government and led to the forcedresignation of Amber Rudd as home secretary earlier this week over”inadvertently” misleading Parliament on her department’s illegal migrationtargets.
The group referred to as the ‘Windrush generation’ relates to a ship namedWindrush, which brought hundreds of Jamaican workers to UK shores in 1948.The scandal came to light as many among them faced forced deportations dueto lack of documentary evidence that they had the right to live and work inBritain because they arrived before 1973 when stricter new visa norms cameinto force for all Commonwealth nationals migrating to the UK.
“The same issues could have an impact on other Commonwealth citizens,perhaps people such as my parents and others from South Asia who settled inthis country. I am aware that that could be the case and I intend to lookat that carefully,” Pakistani-origin Javid told the Commons soon aftertaking charge of his new ministerial portfolio on Monday