(Poplar and Limehouse)
(Lab): I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and for all
her brave and principled hard work in this area. As has been
pointed out in this place and beyond, the Government’s divisive,
draconian and oppressive hostile environment for migrants is at
the core of the treatment of the Windrush generation. Does she
agree that although this scandal has disproportionately affected
people from the Caribbean, it potentially impacts on all people
from across the Commonwealth, including migrants from
India Pakistan and Bangladesh?
(Hackney North and Stoke
Newington) (Lab): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her
intervention. I was going to come to the point that although
people talk about the Windrush scandal in terms of migrants from
the Caribbean, it actually affects people from Africa, from south
Asia and anyone from a then Commonwealth country who came in at
the time. I point out to the House that there is also another,
perhaps larger, scandal waiting in the wings. This, too, arises
because of the 2014 Act and the hostile environment. I am
speaking, of course, about this Government’s treatment of the EU
3 million. The EU settlement scheme does not confer new rights,
but instead removes them. EU citizens will then potentially risk
being charged that they are here illegally, and will face the
burden of proof to show otherwise, and the legal status of
British citizens now abroad is also bound up with how fairly this
Government treat EU citizens here...
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