Britain's hostile environment policy 'disproportionately affect' black and Asian people, review says

A government review into Home Office’s hostile environment policies has revealed that it had disproportionately affected people of colour in UK.

The report said that Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians and Bangladeshis were most likely to be affected by these policies rather than Albanians and Brazilians who are the top five nationalities residing illegally in the UK, The Guardian reported.

In 2012, then Home Secretary Theresa May announced a set of policies with the aim of making life unbearable for undocumented migrants so that they would voluntarily choose to leave. She said at the time; “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.”

The Home Office wanted to limit access to work, benefits, bank accounts, driving licences and other essential services for illegal migrants.

An earlier review of the department’s handling of the Windrush scandal proposed a full review of the policy, rebranded as compliant environment.

The assessment published last Thursday (9) mentioned, “It would initially appear that data indicates migrants impacted by the compliant environment are more likely to be from one of a select number of nationalities rather than a wide-range, and may also be more likely to be of South-East Asian or black ethnicity.”

“We note that of the top five nationalities impacted, most are identifiable as being from/of brown or black heritage and all five are visibly not white," it added.

The latest review is the first official evaluation of government policies that caused the 'windrush scandal' when thousands of people who were legally residing in the UK found themselves unable to work, rent properties, receive NHS healthcare, open bank accounts or travel.

Former home secretary Priti Patel made a commitment to review the hostile environment measures in 2019.

According to the assessment, Albanian, Indian, Pakistani, Brazilian and Chinese were the nationalities most commonly found to be illegally present in the UK in 2019.

However, Indian, Pakistani, and Nigerian nationals, who accounted for over a third of the temporary migrant population, were impacted by data-sharing between government departments to regulate access to work, benefits and services under the policy.

Following the publication of the equality impact assessment, UK charity the Joint Council for the Welfare of immigrants (JCWI) termed these policies as 'racist'.

“It acknowledges for the first time what we’ve long known – that these policies have ‘disproportionate impact’ on POC (people of colour)," it said.

“In other words, the hostile environment is racist. This is a watershed moment.”

Mary Atkinson, campaigns and networks manager at JCWI, said that the government cannot begin to right the wrongs of Windrush while every single policy that caused discrimination against Windrush victims remains in place.

The report studied impact of policies between the introduction of the Immigration Act 2014 and 2018 when some rules were changed due to the Windrush scandal.

During the four years, the Home Office shared 448,800 individuals’ records with government departments and as many as 63,786 individuals were affected as the Home Office told their employer that they may not have the right to work in the country.

“Evaluating the compliant environment is vital to ensuring that both its rules and its protections work effectively. Steps have already been taken to improve safeguards and ensure individuals who are lawfully in the UK have appropriate protection and do not experience difficulties demonstrating their entitlement to work, benefits and services," a Home Office spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Evening Standard.