The Home Secretary's Idea To House Migrants On Atlantic Islands Suggests The 'hostile Environment' Is Here To Stay

Published date23 October 2020
Subject MatterEnvironment, Government, Public Sector, Immigration, Environmental Law, Human Rights, General Immigration
Law FirmLeigh Day
AuthorMr Hugh Johnson-Gilbert

In the second of a series of blogs for Black History Month, international solicitor Hugh Johnson-Gilbert looks at migration and why it appears the UK's 'hostile environment' is here to stay.

In a 2012 interview with the Telegraph, then Home Secretary Theresa May outlined her plans to create a "really hostile environment" for illegal migrants in the UK. That intention manifested in a series of divisive policies, such as the infamous 'go-home vans' or those that effectively forced doctors and nurses to start checking patients' immigration statuses before offering treatment.

It was an environment that fanned the flames of nationalist sentiment and was one of the reasons that the Windrush Scandal was allowed to occur.

Towards the end of 2017, stories began to break of long-settled, retirement-age, black UK residents being aggressively pursued by the Home Office over their immigration status.

This moral, legal and political fiasco came to be known as the 'Windrush Scandal'. Over the course of many months, story after story emerged of UK residents being threatened with deportation, held in immigration detention centres and denied their basic rights. The scandal was, at least in part, a result of the Home Office's 'hostile environment' policy.

That policy mutated, with devastating consequences for many. It led to enormous embarrassment for its architect, Theresa May, the resignation of then Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and the acknowledgment that thousands of affected individuals were entitled to compensation.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2020, in response to the publication of Wendy Williams' independent review into the Windrush Scandal, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced her ambition for a "fair, humane, compassionate and outward-looking Home Office".

Two months later, the Financial Times reported that she had asked Home Office officials to explore the feasibility of building an asylum processing centre on either Ascension Island or St Helena, two British overseas island territories in the middle of the south Atlantic.

This troubling policy proposal suggests two things: firstly, that the hostile environment is here to stay; and secondly, that an 'Australia-style' immigration system (the panacea promised for the UK's unshackled post-Brexit future) potentially extends beyond adopting a 'points-based system' and includes mirroring Australia's...

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