Windrush scandal: British Home Secretary Amber Rudd summoned to parliament, pressurized to resign

Amber Rudd has been under mounting pressure in recent days over the Windrush scandal. (Photo by Getty images)

While British Home Secretary Amber Rudd faces mounting pressure to resign over the Windrush scandal, now she has been recalled to the British parliament to give evidence after admitting she should have known about targets for removing illegal immigrants.

The Home Secretary will have to explain herself to Parliament after being summoned by the opposition Labour Party to answer questions on the issue.

The Commons Home Affairs Committee chairman, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, said: “We have obviously been given inaccurate information to Parliament twice now. This is a serious concern and I am calling Amber Rudd to come back and give further evidence to the committee.”

The recall comes after an explosive memo emerged which suggested Amber Rudd was told about illegal immigrant removal targets, despite telling MPs otherwise, the Mail reported. 

The leaked memo was sent to the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said officials had set “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18.” The leaked memo also boasts that “we have exceeded our target of assisted returns' and that progress had been made on achieving the 10 per cent increase in deportations they had promised Ms Rudd.”

The memo, leaked to The Guardian, contradicts evidence the secretary gave to the Home Affairs select committee just three days ago when she said she was not aware of any targets.

Rudd’s claims also contradicted evidence given to the same committee by representatives of immigration staff, who insisted employees are given targets for how many people they should deport.

The Windrush scandal

For nearly two weeks, British ministers have been struggling to explain why some descendants of the "Windrush generation", who were invited to Britain to plug labor shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, had been labeled illegal immigrants.

Much like Dreamers who were brought to the United States as children, many immigrant kids who arrived in the United Kingdom from the Caribbean and other former British colonies a half-century ago face an uncertain future.

They are the descendants a generation, named after a ship — the MV Empire Windrush — that docked in the UK in June 1948 with cleaners, bus drivers, bricklayers and nurses from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other British territories as labor who would reconstruct war-ravaged Britain.

They arrived in the UK legally under previous freedom of movement laws for nationals of the Commonwealth, an intergovernmental organization of 53 member states that were mostly former territories of the British Empire. The immigrants did not need elaborate documentation or proof of British citizenship. Many never registered and did not obtain papers or documents of citizenship.

Changes to migration rules mean those who lack documents are now being told they need evidence to continue working, access key services or even remain in the UK

The new rules on immigration mean some of these immigrants are now being classified as illegal. They have faced deportation threats and in some cases stripped of their rights to access health care, employment and pensions.

The issue has come to light following a new round of clampdowns on illegal immigration in recent years, with requirements for people to have documentation to work, rent a property or access benefits including healthcare.

Rudd on Wednesday told lawmakers that Britain did not have targets for removals of immigrants.

But the BBC and the Guardian said that a Home Office inspection report from December 2015 showed that targets for the voluntary departure of people regarded as having no right to stay in the United Kingdom had been used.

The Home Secretary has resisted calls to quit saying she is 'sorry' for not being aware of documents which set out the targets.

However she acknowledged that the disclosure had raised 'legitimate questions' and said she would be making a statement to MPs on Monday.