A letter from Sajid Javid is not good enough. Theresa May must apologise

31 Aug 2018
Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, commenting on Sajid Javid pledging to apologise to the three families of members of the Windrush generation who were wrongly deported to the Caribbean, who died before officials were able to contact them to help them return to the UK, said:

“A letter from the Home Secretary is not good enough. The Prime Minister is the architect of the hostile environment policy that saw these British citizens deported to Jamaica, and it is the Prime Minister who must personally apologise to their families and loved ones. Theresa May must stop using the Home Secretary as her human shield and take responsibility for the Windrush scandal and the suffering it has caused.

“The deaths of these British citizens in Jamaica shame this government and the Prime Minister. Our fellow citizens dying thousands of miles from their homes, families and friends and our health service is the latest tragic injustice suffered by our fellow citizens as a direct result of the Tories’ hostile environment.

“The true scale of this scandal is still being revealed and the Home Office has not come clean about how many of the Windrush generation were deported. We still do not have the final figures of how many people were forced into so-called voluntary deportations, barred from re-entering the country after visiting family overseas or detained as prisoners in their own country.

“Labour will ensure that the Windrush generation get the justice they deserve. In government, we will end the Tories’ hostile environment to prevent these injustices being repeated.”

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