UNITED KINGDOM
The UK Minister for Immigration, Caroline Nokes (pictured) says she wants to end “the computer says no” culture at the Home Office, after evidence that up to 1,000 highly skilled immigrants faced being deported for minor errors on their tax forms.
Ms Nokes was giving evidence to Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee when she was asked about people facing possible deportation because of mistakes uncovered by HM Revenue and Customs.
She said she was concerned that this affected people “who have been contributing to this country, whether economically or culturally”.
Ms Nokes repeatedly called for what she described as a “culture change” in the Home Office.
“It’s not about using rules to have a ‘computer says no’ mentality,” Ms Nokes said.
The Minister also told the Committee that Home Office officials were combing through the case files of 8,000 immigrants removed from Britain since 2002 to establish whether any had been caught up in the Windrush scandal.
She said her Department had identified people of the relevant age and nationality, and was investigating whether they had been affected.
This investigation is separate from the internal inquiry into the Windrush errors that has been announced by new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid.
His predecessor, Amber Rudd resigned after conceding she had inadvertently misled the Committee over the existence of deportation targets in the Department.
Ms Rudd had struggled to explain her role in the mistreatment of the so-called Windrush generation, some of whom have lost their jobs, benefits and homes, and face deportation because they never formalised their residency status after coming to the UK decades ago on the Empire Windrush and other vessels.
London, 9 May 2018
