Windrush warning signs missed 'because ministers’ minds were elsewhere’, top civil servant says

22nd June 1948: The ex-troopship 'Empire Windrush' arriving at Tilbury Docks from Jamaica, with 482 Jamaicans on board, emigrating to Britain.
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Patrick Grafton-Green17 December 2018
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Warning signs over the Windrush scandal may have been missed because ministers' "minds were elsewhere", the Home Office's top civil servant has said.

Sir Philip Rutnam told MPs his review of the scandal showed there had been recognition of risks in "some elements" of policies designed to tackle illegal immigration.

He said: "There was some awareness, but how is it possible that this was lost sight of, as significant a fact as it clearly is?

"I'm afraid I don't know. I think that probably people's minds were elsewhere."

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Asked who he was referring to, the Home Office permanent secretary added: "The relevant decision-makers, both ministers and officials."

His remarks to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) came after a report from the National Audit Office found the Home Office was aware of "credible information" about possible issues as long as four years ago.

Ministers faced a furious backlash over the treatment of members of the Windrush generation, named after a ship that brought migrants to Britain from the Caribbean in 1948.

Commonwealth citizens who arrived before 1973 were automatically granted indefinite leave to remain but many were not issued with any documents confirming their status.

A public outcry erupted after it emerged that long-term UK residents were denied access to services, held in detention or removed despite living legally in the country for decades.

The PAC heard from Vernon Vanriel, who came to the UK from Jamaica as a boy in 1962. He said he was unable to return to the UK after he visited Jamaica in 2005.

"I tried to get back after two years but was told I couldn't get back," he said. "I always considered myself as British. When I was refused entry in 2007, it just blew my world apart.

"To find that I was refused entry to the country that I grew up in, and that I loved so dearly, was just mind-blowing to me."

Mr Vanriel, 63, finally came back to Britain earlier this year.

Sir Philip apologised to Mr Vanriel, telling the committee he was "absolutely appalled" to hear his account.

He added: "As I have been appalled by reading and hearing other accounts of people who have been let down so badly. In my 30-odd years of public service, I've never seen an episode like this."

Figures published by the Home Office on Monday show it has spent more than £6million so far on its response to Windrush.

Officials have now traced 124 out of 164 people identified in a review of historical removals and detentions. Efforts to make contact with the remaining 40 are continuing.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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