British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced an internal UK Home Office review of its handling of the so-called Windrush immigration scandal, as the Opposition warned that Bangladeshis are likely to be among the migrants affected by the issue.
The British Prime Minister told MPs in the House of Commons on Wednesday that “speed is of the essence” and that the new home secretary, Sajid Javid, "will be commissioning a full review of lessons learned, independent oversight and external challenge".
“The review will have full access to all relevant information in the Home Office, including policy papers and casework decisions," she said, as the scandal continued to dominate parliamentary proceedings in the country.
In an Opposition Day Debate in the Commons titled “Windrush and the Prime Minister’s Policy of creating a hostile environment” on Wednesday, the Labour party warned that the scandal engulfs immigrants from many Commonwealth countries, including “those who came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh”.
“This is an issue that has resonated around the Commonwealth. At a time when we are trying to build our relationship with the Commonwealth post-Brexit for trade and other reasons, it is extremely damaging what has been revealed about the way Commonwealth citizens have been treated,” said Labour MP Diane Abbott, the UK’s shadow home secretary.
Sajid Javid responded by vowing to do “whatever it takes” to put things right and helping everyone affected by the Windrush scandal.
The issue has caused turmoil for the UK government and led to the forced resignation of Amber Rudd as home secretary earlier this week over “inadvertently” misleading Parliament on her department’s illegal migration targets.
The group referred to as the “Windrush generation” relates to a ship named Windrush, which brought hundreds of Jamaican workers to UK shores in 1948.
The scandal came to light as many among them faced forced deportations due to lack of documentary evidence that they had the right to live and work in Britain because they arrived before 1973, when stricter new visa norms came into force for all Commonwealth nationals migrating to the UK.
As part of its parliamentary motion on Wednesday, the Opposition Labour party asked for all papers, correspondence and advice on Windrush between ministers, senior officials and advisers from May 2010 until now.
The government is opposed to the move and has instead laid out a series of “greater transparency” measures over detentions, deportations and removals and committed to completing an internal review by the end of the ongoing Summer Session of the UK Parliament.

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