By Ben Kerrigan-
Amber Rudd had no tagging system for complaints and concerns coming to her department, it has been revealed.
The home secretary’s candid remarks came as she faced louder calls to resign over her department’s handling of the chaotic problems faced by members of the Windrush generation in recent years.
Appearing in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee in the Commons, Ms Rudd added that she had only become aware that there was a “potential issue” over the “past few months
Ms Rudd said: ‘I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn’t see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing.
‘I didn’t see it as a systemic issue until very recently.’
She made the admission as she was grilled by the Home Affairs select committee over her handling of the saga. The home secretary’s frank remarks came as she faced mounting calls to resign over her department’s handling of the problems faced by members of the Windrush generation in recent years.
TAGGING SYSTEM
MPs have said that Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, might have been able to intervene in the case of the Windrush generation individuals earlier, if there had been a tagging system for complaints and concerns coming into her department. Two MPs highlighted their own constituency offices tag casework files in ways that would’ve flagged up concerns coming from a particular group in society pretty quickly.
In the case of the Home Office under Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, the state of play was different. Amber Rudd admitted not knowing precisely how many people from the windrush generation had been detained, and was unclear what the committee might like to see in terms of how far back in time the data should go. Her admission reveals some weakness or lack of unity in the schemes undertaken by the Home Office, and their boss, Rudd. Yvette Cooper expressed disbelief that the Home Office hadn’t considered it necessary to urgently look into cases of people who had been “wrongfully incarcerated” by the state
Another regret surely must be the embarrassment over the scandal after it was revealed that the Home Office has deportation targets, but Ms Rudd was not aware of any. This should be no surprise because if the Home Office has no target system that flags concerns, it would not likely have any that reveals the full scale of the problem those affected by it. Rudd insisted she was now doing everything she could to swiftly resolve the cases so people – and repeated a pledge to compensate those caught up in the scandal.
Quite clearly, the public demand for the government to clamp down on illegal immigration influenced the broad and harsh measures taken by the Home Office that led to the bungled situation in which several hundreds , if not thousands, of individuals from the windrush generation suffered separation from their loved ones in Britain. When in fact, the British government should have been using legitimate tactics to address illegal immigration, it appears that other powerful influences at the Home Office set hostile rules that affected individuals legally allowed to be in Britain.
REDUCING APPEALS
Stephen Doughty said the hostile environment policy involved reducing appeals and reducing staffing levels and there were wider problems with the hostile environment policy
Amber Rudd today admitted her ‘bitter regret’ at failing to grasp the scale of the Windrush scandal sooner.
It also came to light that 1,364 Windrush immigrants have called a special helpline in the past week, in a desperate bid to have their plight reversed. hey may have to wait a long while for that since corrections of errors of this type don’t have overnight. Prime minister Theresa and Rudd will do their best to solve the mass problem, and May has also promised compensation for those affected.