Twenty-five black, Asian and minority ethnic MPs have written to the home secretary telling her that the framing of Britain’s immigration legislation “cannot be uncoupled from racism and the exclusion of people of colour”.
The MPs were responding to the publication last month of a previously suppressed Home Office report on the origins of the Windrush scandal, which highlighted how three decades of British immigration legislation between 1950 and 1981 were “designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK”.
In advance of the new government’s border security, asylum and immigration bill, the MPs called for “urgent reflection” on how the narratives around legislation could become “enabling environments for racism”.
The letter to Yvette Cooper, written by the Labour MP Clive Lewis and signed by Labour and independent MPs, calls for “action to acknowledge the links between racism and hostile migration policies” and urges “a commitment to building a fair and compassionate system, which ensures that another Windrush scandal cannot happen again”.
Signed by Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Marsha de Cordova among others, the letter says the government needs to address the “deep-seated institutional and cultural failures” of the Home Office, which led to officials burying the department’s own research paper, titled The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal.
“The research demonstrates how immigration policy and legislation has been designed to exclude and other people of colour in the UK for decades,” the letter states. “Following the shocking events of racist violence this summer, the government has an important opportunity to recognise the conclusions of this report and shift the dial. This means action to acknowledge the links between racism and hostile migration policies.”
It also calls on the government to remedy the “continued failures” of the Windrush compensation scheme, which has been repeatedly criticised for its slowness in delivering payments to those affected by the scandal, in which thousands of long-term UK residents were misclassified as being in the country illegally.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary is determined to put right the appalling injustices caused by the Windrush scandal, making sure those affected receive the compensation they rightly deserve, and ensuring cultural change is embedded permanently into the fabric of the Home Office. We will ensure victims of the Windrush scandal have their voices heard and that the compensation scheme is delivered efficiently.”
