Priti Patel has cited the Windrush scandal as a reason not to allow open-door entry to Ukrainian refugees.
Speaking in the Commons on Thursday the Home Secretary told MPs that visa restrictions imposed by the Home Office were necessary because of “something known as the Windrush scandal”.
The scandal came about because the government’s “hostile environment” policies required people to show documentation they were never issued with when they arrived in the UK.
As a result thousands of people – particularly those from the so-called “Windrush generation” who came to Britain after WWII were locked out of services like housing and healthcare.
The government was pushed into paying compensation to the victims, who were mostly black Britons – though it has been criticised for being slow to do so.
“What we are seeing, and it is important that we’re flexible in our response and we have been, is that there are many Ukrainians that do not have documentation,” Ms Patel said in response to an urgent question from shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.
“And if I may, Mr Speaker, I think this country and all governments, including probably a government that she once served in, will recognise that there was something known as the Windrush scandal.”
As MPs on the opposition benches cried out in anger over her comments, the Home Secretary continued:
“It’s important that everyone who arrives in the UK has physical and digital records of their status in the UK to ensure that they’re accessible to schemes.
“They may holler on the other side by the process is absolutely vital in terms of the verification – notification and permission to travel, but importantly to give people the status when they come to the United Kingdom to have that right to work, the right to access some benefits and also the digital verification of their status. I think that is absolutely right.”
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who campaigned for the scandal’s victims, appeared to criticise the Home Secretary’s comments.
Responding later on social media , he said: “Priti Patel, please listen to your government’s own Windrush Lessons Learned Review which said:
“the Home Office must … change its culture to recognise that migration and wider Home Office policy is about people and, whatever it’s objective, should be rooted in humanity.”
Britain has stood out among European countries in not offering an open door policy to Ukrainian refugees – with the government coming in for international criticism.
At the start of the week French interior minister Gerald Darmanin, wrote a strongly-worded letter to his British counterpart Priti Patel, accusing the UK of a “lack of humanity” for not opening its doors.
Ms Patel announced more measures to relax biometric checks on Thursday but Labour has said the measures will still result in delays. The opposition says emergency protection visas should be introduced, though it has also stopped short of calling the UK to emulate the UK’s open door policy and waive visas entirely.
