Windrush inquiry head disappointed as Braverman drops ‘crucial’ measures

Read More

The head of the inquiry into the Windrush debacle has expressed disappointment after Suella Braverman confirmed she has dropped three key reform commitments made after the Home Office scandal.

The home secretary said she would not implement two changes that would have increased independent scrutiny of the Home Office’s immigration policies and a third promise to run reconciliation events with Windrush families.

The recommendations were accepted three years ago by the government, after a formal inquiry by Wendy Williams examined the scandal under which the Home Office erroneously classified legal residents, many of whom arrived from Caribbean countries as children in the 1950s and 1960s, as immigrants living in the UK illegally.

Braverman wrote in a written ministerial statement: “The Home Office regularly reviews the best way to deliver against the intent of Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned review.

“As such, after considering officials’ advice, I have decided not to proceed with recommendations 3 (run reconciliation events), 9 (introduce migrants’ commissioner) and 10 (review the remit and role of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration) in their original format.”

The decision to drop promises made by the former home secretary Priti Patel, which was first reported in the Guardian and dismissed as speculation by a government minister, has prompted Williams to issue a rare statement.

Williams said she was concerned that the government had dropped the promise to create the post of a migrants’ commissioner, who would have been responsible for speaking up for migrants and identifying systemic problems within the UK immigration system.

Another promise, to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) so that they would be able to launch and release their own inquiries has also been abandoned, as work on the post-Windrush reform programme is downgraded.

Williams said: “I am disappointed that the department has decided not to implement what I see as the crucial external scrutiny measures, namely my recommendations related to the migrants’ commissioner (recommendation 9) and the ICIBI (recommmendation 10), as I believe they will raise the confidence of the Windrush community, but also help the department succeed as it works to protect the wider public, of whom the Windrush generation is such an important part.”

Patel made a firm promise to introduce all 30 recommendations made by Williams in 2020, who listed in her Windrush Lessons Learned review the precise steps the department needed to take to avoid any repeat of the scandal.

David Neal, the current independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said the decision was a “missed opportunity” to improve scrutiny and trust in the government’s policies.

One of the people affected by the scandal, Judy Griffith, 68, was told by a jobcentre employee that she was an “illegal immigrant” in 2015, 52 years after she had arrived as a nine-year-old from Barbados. She was unable to work and as a result got into significant arrears and narrowly escaped eviction. She was also unable to travel, could not visit her sick mother in Barbados and missed her funeral in 2016. She said was depressed to hear that some of the reform commitments were being dropped.

“It feels like they aren’t interested in learning lessons. So many reports and recommendations have been published but so much of it has not been followed through,” she said. “So many of us are still waiting for justice.”