The proof that ministers haven’t learnt the lessons from the Windrush scandal

Home Office’s catch-all strategy of brandishing all deportees as serious criminals is a quick way of stripping any public sympathy for them, but it is worryingly far from the truth, writes May Bulman

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The Windrush scandal threw a wave of shame over the British public. For a rare moment, a story sympathetic to immigrants made headlines across the media landscape. No one could argue that it was right to strip the rights of people who had called the UK their home for decades.

Nearly two years on, ministers have sought to exile around 50 Caribbean men, most of whom have been in the UK since they were children and whose families are settled here. Many have British children themselves, meaning their removal would force their partners into single parenthood and add to the already-too-high number of fatherless households.

The government claims it has been taking steps to right the wrongs of the Windrush fiasco. Action has been taken, with a taskforce put in place to reinstate the immigration status of those affected and a compensation scheme – though far later than expected – set up in its wake.