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Home Secretary Sajid Javid apologises to 18 Windrush generation members who may have been wrongfully removed or detained

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has apologised to 18 members of the Windrush community: PA
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has apologised to 18 members of the Windrush community: PA

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has apologised to 18 members of the Windrush generation who may have been wrongfully removed or detained following the scandal.

Officials examined nearly 12,000 historical records and established that 11 people left the country voluntarily after being unable to establish continuous residence.

Some of those who departed were served with immigration enforcement papers informing them they had no right to be in the UK.

The review found that a further seven individuals were detained before being released, without being removed.

Of these 18, four were removed and two detained before May 2010 and seven were removed and five detained after that month.

Mr Javid said: "I would like to personally apologise to those identified in our review and am committed to providing them with the support and compensation they deserve.

"We must do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this happens again - which is why I have asked an independent adviser to look at what lessons we can learn from Windrush."

Jamaican immigrants are welcomed by RAF officials after landing in the UK (PA)
Jamaican immigrants are welcomed by RAF officials after landing in the UK (PA)

In a statement on Tuesday, the Home Office said it had been in contact with 14 of the 18 people. Those currently not residing in the UK will be given the option to return.

They will also be guided through the compensation scheme.

The Windrush scandal came to light in April this year after multiple reports of immigrants who arrived from Britain between 1948 and 1971 being denied healthcare and benefits with some told that they would be removed from the country.

Many of the Windrush generation, named after the ship HMT Empire Windrush, came from African and Caribbean countries under a rule allowing freedom of movement within the Commonwealth.

Minors travelled on their parents' documents and some never registered for a passport as they did not intend to travel abroad.

HMS Empire Windrush pictured in 1954 (PA)
HMS Empire Windrush pictured in 1954 (PA)

Now, because they never asked for document proving their status, the Home Office did not automatically issue any, many are being asked to leave the UK.

The Migration Observatory at Oxford University estimates there are 500,000 people resident in the UK who arrived before 1971 from a Commonwealth country.

The home secretary at the time, Amber Rudd, offered an apology in the House of Commons for the "appalling" treatment of the Windrush veterans announcing a taskforce to resolve their immigration status as quickly as possible.

However she was criticised for saying the Home Office was "too concerned with policy and strategy and sometimes loses sight of the individual", prompting accusations that she was trying to put the blame on civil servants.