Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the Windrush generation his Department has identified to date as having been deported as a result of its immigration policies.

The Department has been carrying out a review of all cases of Caribbean Commonwealth nationality, born before 1 January 1973, who have been removed and/or detained by the Home Office since 2002 (when the Casework Information Database (CID) was available across the immigration system) and sought to identify any individuals where there was an indication in the record that the individual could have been in the UK before 1973.

The Home Secretary wrote to the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 21st August to provide an update on this work. This letter outlined that, so far, this review has identified 164 people who were detained and / or removed who told the Home Office they came to the UK before 1 January 1973. Of these, we have identified 18 people who stayed here permanently and who are the people we consider most likely to have suffered detriment because their right to be in the UK was not recognised and where the Department is most likely to have acted wrongfully in removed or detaining them. Eleven of these left the UK voluntarily and seven were detained. Letters of apology are being sent from the Home Secretary.

A copy of this letter has been deposited in the House Library. This work is ongoing and the Home Secretary has committed to regularly updating the Home Affairs Select Committee on progress.

These cases of removal and detention have happened over many years under successive governments, with cases spread roughly equally between 2002-2010, and from 2010 onwards. Of course, no matter how long ago the removal or detention case the Home Office will do whatever it can to address anything wrongful which has been done.