The Home Office was warned by its own officials that a toughening up of immigration laws could hit older immigrants such as the Windrush generation, it emerged last night.
The warning came in an internal assessment on the impact of changes to the ‘right to rent’ scheme, introduced in 2014.
Measures proposed in the Immigration Bill 2015 – brought into force by the Immigration Act 2016 – threatened landlords with five years in jail if they did not check if tenants had permission to stay in the UK. They were also given greater powers to evict illegal immigrants.
The Home Office was warned by its own officials that a toughening up of immigration laws could hit older immigrants such as the Windrush generation. Pictured: Theresa May issuing a grovelling apology to Windrush immigrants on Wednesday
But the 11-page paper, which did not specifically mention the Windrush generation, warned: ‘Some non-UK born older people may have additional difficulties in providing original documentation.
Some may have had their immigration records destroyed. Some will have originally come into the country under old legislation but may have difficulty in evidencing this.
‘Some may be able to evidence it, but landlords might be unwilling to go to the trouble of verifying unfamiliar documentation.’
It pointed out that the landlords could use a wide range of documents to certify eligibility, including expired passports.
Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, who uncovered the document, said: ‘It is so cowardly that the Home Office is expressing surprise and saying this scandal is a dreadful mistake by some junior person yet this shows ministers must have been told that this could happen.’ Ministers would not have been required to sign off the impact assessment, said the Home Office.
The document emerged after another twist in the Windrush scandal yesterday when Theresa May said the decision to destroy the migrants’ paper landing cards had been taken under the last Labour government
The document emerged after another twist in the Windrush scandal yesterday when Theresa May said the decision to destroy the migrants’ paper landing cards had been taken under the last Labour government.
Jeremy Corbyn accused the Prime Minister in the House of Commons of responsibility for shredding thousands of documents from Commonwealth citizens which could have helped confirm their immigration status. But she hit back, insisting that the decision to destroy the cards was made in 2009.
On Tuesday, the Home Office said the decision was made in 2010. However, yesterday Downing Street said officials at the UK Border Agency actually took the decision in June 2009. That month Alan Johnson took over from Jacqui Smith as Home Secretary.
By last night the timeline of what happened was the subject of a furious row. Labour accused Mrs May of misleading Parliament – a claim rejected by No10.
A spokesman for Mrs May later insisted that the ‘business case’ to dispose of paper records, including landing slips, was taken in June 2009. Paper records started to be destroyed in December that year. But the destruction of the landing slips did not begin until October 2010, when Mrs May was Home Secretary.
Officials insisted Mrs May was ‘not involved’ in that decision in 2010 which was ‘an operational decision taken by the UK Border Agency’. They also argued that the landing cards would not have helped solve the problem of Windrush migrants proving they were resident in Britain.
However, a former Home Office official contradicted that claim. The worker, speaking anonymously, told the Guardian that landing card information was used regularly in decision-making work during the 1980s. She said the database was important because ‘it would show who else arrived with you; it would show the parents and the children that they brought with them’.
A Labour spokesman said the Government’s story on the cards was ‘shifting by the hour’.
Last night a Home Office spokesman said it did a lot of work on the Right to Rent checks ‘to ensure they did not have an adverse impact on any age group.
‘This included working with charities, local authorities, landlords and letting agents. We also set up an enquiry service to support to landlords delivering the checks and worked with organisations such as Citizens Advice.’