Windrush - A hostile environment

[original PM]

At last we are looking at who should be here claiming benefits, using the hospitals and schools and those that should not.

Sounds like great progress to me.

Well there seems to be a bit of a consensus of opinion that maybe the government should be sort of doing that on a regular systematic basis.

[darmstadt]

Unless you're German aristocracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia...ation_Act_1705

[DimPrawn]

At last we are looking at who should be here claiming benefits, using the hospitals and schools and those that should not.

Sounds like great progress to me.

[m0n1k3r]

Even officials:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/n...tion-wfsvk6jj2

An official working at the immigration removal centre in Dover has disclosed how he himself feared he would be deported even though he has lived in the UK since 1967.

Adrian Bovelle, 56, was pulled over as he returned from a family reunion in Barbados last August and was told he had six months to prove his right to remain in Britain. It was the second such incident in two years.

Bovelle said this weekend: “I hold a Barbadian passport and have indefinite leave to remain stamped on it with the serial number of the immigration officer who placed it in there.”

“But I was told that it could have been forged. …”

[SueEllen]

Has worked well - linky

Margaret O’Brien, 69, moved from Canada to Wolverhampton in 1971, got married, had three children and worked for the local council for more than 25 years as a dinner lady, meals on wheels driver, lollipop lady and cleaner.

A spinal injury a few years ago meant she had to give up her job, leading her to apply for benefits for the first time. In 2015, she was told her disability payments had been suspended because she was an illegal immigrant.

O’Brien received a letter stating: “Home Office records indicate that you do not have permission to be in the UK. You should make arrangements to leave without delay.”

The letter informed her “of our intention to remove you from the UK to your country of nationality if you do not depart voluntarily. No further notice will be given”

[darmstadt]

In May 2012, the then Home Secretary Theresa May said in a Telegraph interview: "The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration... What we don't want is a situation where people think that they can come here and overstay because they're able to access everything they need."

The 'Hostile Environment' is a set of measures, both administrative and legislative, to make life so miserable for anyone without immigration status, that they will 'self-remove'. It includes limiting access to employment, housing, healthcare, confiscating a driving licence, freezing bank accounts, restricting rights of appeal against the Home Office's decisions. At the same time rules are made ever more complex (they have been called Byzantine in the Court of Appeal). And the Home Office has a tendency to appeal decisions then delay the appeal process unnecessarily, and there is even a history of non-compliance with orders of the courts.

[SueEllen]

And as I stated - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...windrush-group

[SueEllen]

And notice how the Tories wheel out Kwasi Kwarteng whenever they have to do an interview about the Windrush scandal? Not Amber Rudd the current Home Secretary, not Theresa May the Home Secretary who brought in the changes, not anyone in the cabinet, none of whom are black. Not any of the MPs who sometimes attend the cabinet, none of whom are black either. No they find one of the very few black Conservative MPs and send him out to face the questions. Some PR guru's obviously told them that'll make good optics.

It isn't actually a Windrush scandal as there are cases from all over the Commonwealth, which David Lammy has pointed out. (I also know first hand stories from other countries and heard other stories.)

BTW Kwasi Kwarteng's heritage is Ghanaian, so getting him to talk about the Caribbean is a bit stupid.

[darmstadt]

And notice how the Tories wheel out Kwasi Kwarteng whenever they have to do an interview about the Windrush scandal? Not Amber Rudd the current Home Secretary, not Theresa May the Home Secretary who brought in the changes, not anyone in the cabinet, none of whom are black. Not any of the MPs who sometimes attend the cabinet, none of whom are black either. No they find one of the very few black Conservative MPs and send him out to face the questions. Some PR guru's obviously told them that'll make good optics.

[scooterscot]

Once again Jonathan Pie nails it... possibly NSFW for some - particularly those working for Tory quangos