Home Office staff worry they may be asked to act illegally in ‘culture of fear’

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Frontline Home Office staff have warned of a “culture of fear” where they are being put into dangerous situations, and may be asked to act illegally, on the 10th anniversary of the launch of the hostile environment.

On 25 May 2012 Theresa May, the then home secretary, gave an interview to the Telegraph in which she said: “The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.”

The phrase became shorthand for a series of strict policies aimed at cracking down on people who had overstayed, making it harder for them to work in the UK illegally and access housing and bank accounts.

A decade on and the hostile environment has evolved hugely but politicians and others from across the political spectrum question whether it has achieved its stated objectives. Critics point to its devastating human cost.

When May launched her policy, dissent from her own staff was rare. It has since become increasingly common and the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), which represents many Home Office staff, is among the organisations launching two legal challenges against flagship Home Office policies: pushbacks of small boats used by asylum seekers in the Channel and offshoring some of these asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said: “It appears this government has learned nothing from the Windrush scandal, among others. PCS is not prepared to countenance our members being put in potentially dangerous and traumatic situations, where they may be asked to act illegally and be liable to prosecution.”

Lucy Moreton, a professional officer at the Immigration Services union that represents Border Force guards, said: “The culture of fear has not altered in any way. As a professional body, this union has repeated and extensive contact from officers who are unable to raise their concerns.”

May’s first high-profile hostile environment move was a controversial pilot scheme that operated in six London boroughs in July and August 2013, when two vans with billboards on their sides bore slogans saying: “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest.”

Only dozens reportedly left the UK voluntarily, but the failure of this scheme did not deter May, nor subsequent home secretaries, from taking a tough line on migration to ensure the hostile environment flame was kept alive.

A report in November 2020 from the Equality and Human Rights Commission found the Home Office broke equalities law with the introduction of hostile environment measures.

The Guardian exposed the Windrush scandal in which large numbers of people known as the Windrush generation, who had the right to live in the UK but had no documentation, were adversely affected by these policies.

In December 2018 the National Audit Office (NAO) found that hostile environment policies that led to the Windrush scandal did not provide value for money for the taxpayer.

In April 2019 the NAO launched an investigation into a Home Office decision to accuse 34,000 international students of cheating in English language tests. The report found that Home Office failed to ensure innocent people were not wrongly deported.

An Institute for Public Policy Research report in 2020 concluded the hostile environment policy had fostered racism, pushed people into destitution, wrongly targeted people who were living in the UK legally, and had “severely harmed the reputation of the Home Office”.

In the wake of the Windrush scandal the Home Office committed to introduce a total transformation of the department, including a review of the hostile environment policies that had caused thousands of people profound difficulties.

In her March 2022 progress review, the independent inspector Wendy Williams said: “Given its central significance to the Windrush scandal and the workings of the department, the failure to complete the review of the compliant environment policy will fundamentally hamper the department’s efforts to learn lessons and move on constructively.”

The Home Office’s own data does not suggest hostile environment policies have been successful. The number of enforced deportations has fallen year on year since 2012, the asylum backlog is at record levels, the department has doubled the time it takes to process visas and asylum claims have increased.

Nazek Ramdan, the director of the charity Migrant Voice said: “Hostile environment policies have changed the fabric of our society. Perhaps no other policy in living memory has left such a malign mark, a stain like an oil slick. It is racist, xenophobic, immoral, illegal, unfair, punishing, divisive, mean-spirited, discriminatory and counterproductive.”

Shami Chakrabarti, a former shadow attorney general, said: “Ten years of the hostile environment have been a disaster for race relations, community cohesion and national pride. Using starvation and destitution as a means of control led directly to the Windrush scandal. Far from learning lessons from this stain on our recent history, current ministers have adopted an even more populist far-right approach with Channel ‘pushbacks’ and ‘offshoring’ desperate people to Rwanda.”