Date published: 26th March 2020

In keeping with the ‘hostile environment’, the Windrush Lessons Learned Review has been hurriedly published among the panic and crisis talks surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. The report itself is around a year late, originally due at the end of March 2019, and comes nearly two years after the Windrush scandal first became headline news.

To quickly summarise, the Windrush scandal refers to the situation where long-term residents, most of whom had a legal right to remain in the UK, were required to prove this right and were unable to do so leading to the Home Office taking actions to remove them from the UK.

Scathing in its criticisms of the Home Office, the review states warning signs were ignored by officials and ministers and concludes “an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation within the department.”

The 276 page review provides an excellent in-depth guide through the crisis, offering a platform for effected individuals to present their story, before delivering author Wendy Williams’ findings on the causes of the scandal.

A complex system worsened by legislative amendments made with very little awareness of the effect they have on the overall immigration picture, combined with a refusal to recognise migrants as a key stakeholder in the immigration system are chiefly identified by Williams as leading to Windrush.

The landmark review is important not just for the victims of Windrush; the conclusions drawn by the review will ring true to anyone who has experience dealing with the UK’s immigration system.

The review also addresses how the Home Office has attempted to right the wrongs of Windrush. It finds that, despite some promising procedural changes, the Home Office is still hampered by an extremely concerning, damaging and detrimental culture.

Without a fundamental cultural change, the Home Office will be hamstrung in learning any lesson from Windrush.

The review provides 30 recommendations, each an insight into the worrying practices of the Home Office.

Recommendation 17 calls for a set of ethical standards and an ethical decision-making model. The inference that the Home Office lacks these is highly concerning and sadly unsurprising.

We deal with clients everyday who are asserting that a decision by the Home Office is in breach of their human rights. So it is both pleasing and concerning to see that, also included in the recommendations of the review is a programme of learning and development on the Home Office’s obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998.

Other recommendations include:

  • a full apology to the Windrush generation
  • education and training on the history of the UK and the role this plays in immigration
  • a full review and evaluation of the hostile environment
  • a simplification of the Immigration Rules.

It is possible to take a positive outlook on the report:

  • We finally have the problems within the Home Office officially documented.

and

  • IF (big if) the recommendations are taken seriously and implemented comprehensively, we will be entering uncharted times with what could be an entirely unrecognisable immigration system.

The review came only a day after concerning reports that detainees in UK Immigration detention centres feel unable to protect themselves from contracting coronavirus due to poor sanitation facilities.

It feels that the implementing of the recommendations are extremely overdue.