Amber Rudd is facing more pressure over the Windrush scandal today after it emerged the Home Office did set targets for the voluntary deportation of illegal immigrants.
The Home Secretary said she was ‘not aware’ of any targets when she made a bruising appearance before a powerful committee of MPs last night.
A senior official at the department added that the goals ‘did not exist’.
But an inspection of removals by the borders and immigration watchdog said targets were set in 2014/15 and for 2015/16.
The latest row erupted after Miss Rudd delivered another grovelling apology over the Windrush debacle.
She and Theresa May have come under intense pressure after it emerged residents who arrived from the Commonwealth from the late 1940s to the early 1970s had become caught up in a crackdown on illegal immigration.
People who have legally lived in the UK for decades have lost their homes, jobs or rights to NHS treatment, while some have been locked up in detention centres or threatened with deportation.
Miss Rudd yesterday admitted she had been too slow in recognising that there might be a ‘systemic’ issue over their treatment.
‘I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn’t see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong … I didn’t see it as a systemic issue until very recently,’ she said.
During the bruising session, Miss Rudd revealed she did not know if any Windrush immigrants had been detained.
Amber Rudd appearing in front of the Home Affairs select committee yesterday to give evidence
An inspection of removals by the borders and immigration watchdog said targets for voluntary removals of illegal immigrants were set in 2014/15 and for 2015/16
Ms Rudd said she had become aware of the scandal ‘months earlier’ but had failed to grasp the gravity of the situation
Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the Immigration Service Union, had told the committee that officials in each English region had separate targets for the number of deportations.
She claimed the national target was about 8,000 a year – and said the net removal targets appeared on office posters.
But Miss Rudd said she was ‘not aware’ of any targets, saying she had not heard the evidence put forward by Miss Moreton.
Glynn Williams, Home Office director general for border, immigration and citizenship, said: ‘I don’t think they exist. There are no published removal targets.’
However, it has emerged a December 2015 report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration says that targets were set for voluntary departures, which took place when an individual or family notified authorities of their intention to leave the UK.
Voluntary departures included people who had approached the Home Office for financial assistance with their travel arrangements.
The assistance was available to anyone over 18 who was in the UK illegally, had been refused leave to remain in the UK or had applied for an extension of leave but wanted to withdraw the application and depart.
The report said: ‘For 2014/15 (10 full months) the Home Office set a target of 7,200 voluntary departures, an average of 120 per week, with the weekly target rising to 160 by the end of March 2015.
‘For 2015/16, the annual target was raised to 12,000. These targets were split between the 19 ICE teams across the UK.’
The Home Office also had a process for returning families who had no legal right to remain in the UK, which had a ‘single numerical target’.
The scale of the scandal emerged for the first time yesterday, as MPs were told a helpline set up last week has received more than 1,300 calls about potential Windrush cases. So far 600 have been called back, with 91 appointments made and 23 sets of identity documents handed out. But Miss Rudd admitted she does not know if any Windrush immigrants have been detained because of the scandal. She said that as far as she is ‘aware’ no one has been deported – but there are still 1,000 cases to trawl through to confirm this.
Asked when she first knew of the Windrush problems, Miss Rudd said: ‘I became aware over the past few months … that there was a problem of individuals.
‘This was covered by newspapers, and MPs bringing it forward anecdotally over the past three or four months, and I became aware that there was a potential issue.’
Emphasising those affected were here legally, Miss Rudd insisted there is ‘nothing wrong’ in trying to remove people here unlawfully, and acknowledged she had asked for more removals of such individuals.
She also rejected suggestions the Tories’ target to bring net migration below 100,000 had fuelled the saga.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for her to step aside as Home Secretary over the bruising scandal
MPs were told yesterday that a helpline set up to help those affected has been inundated with nearly 1,300 calls since last week
Earlier in the Commons, Mr Corbyn said Miss Rudd ‘inherited a failing policy and made it worse’, adding: ‘Is it not time she took responsibility and resigned?’
Last night it emerged the Home Office and No 10 were told about problems faced by the Windrush generation in 2016.
They were alerted after the Barbados government raised concerns with the Foreign Office.
At the time, David Cameron was prime minister, Mrs May home secretary and Philip Hammond foreign secretary.
The BBC reported that in April 2016, Mr Hammond was told by Caribbean ministers about immigrants facing deportation.
It is believed a report was passed to the Home Office. It is not clear at what level the concerns were raised.