UK: Scandal of the Windrush generation
The British Interior Minister, Amber Rudd, has resigned this Sunday, as confirmed by Downing Street, after the pressures to which she has been subjected in recent weeks for her management of the scandal unleashed after knowing the government's treatment of the so-called Windrush generation, residents of Caribbean origin mistakenly treated as immigrants in an irregular situation.
With the resignation of Rudd, one of the people who stood highest in the pools of possible successors to the Prime Minister, Theresa May, leaves the Government. Also one of the most moderate figures in Brexit, and who more openly defended a soft break with the European Union. The Government has failed in recent weeks to explain why some descendants of that generation Windrush, named after the first ship that brought these West Indians in 1948 to supply the shortage of labor after the war, had been treated as immigrants in an irregular situation. The scandal overshadowed the summit of the Commonwealth, held in London two weeks ago, and fueled criticism of the so-called "hostile environment" policy launched by Theresa May in her time as interior minister, before becoming prime minister.
The Government has apologized and promised compensation to those affected. But the scandal has questioned the immigration management of the last conservative governments, which repeatedly promised to reduce net immigration below 100,000 people, a goal that has not been reached even remotely and that put enormous pressure on the ministerial portfolio carried first by Theresa May and then, after arriving in Downing Street after the Brexit referendum, Amber Rudd. Rudd was subject to harsh criticism from the opposition for her contradictions in responding to the revelations about the scandal. Information published by The Guardian linked her to the establishment of quantitative targets for the deportation of immigrants. The minister had denied in Parliament the existence of these objectives. "Amber Rudd knew the goals she said they did not exist, it's time for Rudd to leave," Interior Labor spokeswoman Diane Abbott said.
Above all, she was called to answer this Monday in Parliament, but Sunday late in the afternoon, Rudd called the prime minister to present her resignation. Something that May accepted, as she communicated past ten o'clock at night Downing Street. Likewise, May has named Sajid Javid as the new interior minister on Monday, a day after Amber Rudd resigned after being informed that she has raised deportation quotas for foreigners. The British government has set quotas for deporting illegal immigrants from the United Kingdom in 2014, according to a report released last Thursday by the BBC that has raised criticism from opposition parties.
The British Ministry of the Interior determined that 7,200 "voluntary departures" of immigrants were to be produced in the 2014-2015 financial year and raised that figure to 12,000 for 2015-2016, according to a document prepared in December 2015 by the office of the independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration. The head of the Interior, Amber Rudd, admitted on Thursday that there were "local" objectives of expulsion of immigrants for "internal" use, after having assured before a committee of the Parliament that she did not know these provisions.
The controversy over the expulsions of immigrants has occupied covers of the British media in recent days before the scandal of the so-called "generation Windrush", which includes thousands of people who came to the United Kingdom from Commonwealth countries between 1948 and 1971. Some of these people have not been able to prove that they have been in the United Kingdom for decades, which is why they have been in an irregular situation in the country for a few years, which has led some of them to lose their jobs, denied access to healthcare and face threats of deportation.