Outrage after top immigration official who had a key position in the Home Office during the Windrush scandal is knighted in Queen’s birthday honours
- Glyn Williams held a position when ‘hostile environment’ policy was developed
- Mr Williams was head of migration policy at the Home Office from 2010 to 2013
- He has become a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list
By Henry Martin For Mailonline
Published: 21:28 EDT, 7 June 2019 | Updated: 21:30 EDT, 7 June 2019
A top immigration official who held a key Home Office position during the Windrush scandal has been knighted.
Glyn Williams held an important position within the Home Office when the ‘hostile environment’ policy was first developed, intended to make staying in the UK difficult for those without leave to remain in the country.
It emerged last year that many West Indians had been wrongly detained and even threatened with deportation, and British subjects who arrived in the country as part of the ‘Windrush generation’ were among those wrongly deported.
Glyn Williams gives evidence to the parliamentary committee on human rights to face questions over Windrush
It emerged last year that many West Indians had been wrongly detained and even threatened with deportation, and British subjects who arrived in the country as part of the ‘Windrush generation’ were among those wrongly deported (pictured: File photo dated March 28, 1954 of the Empire Windrush ship)
Theresa May, who was Home Secretary in 2012, had said her aim was to create a ‘hostile environment for illegal immigration’.
Mr Williams was head of migration policy at the Home Office between August 2010 and 2013.
He has become a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Mr Williams’s role includes helping ministers create a post-Brexit immigration policy.
He previously worked on reforming immigration from outside Europe and before the Brexit referendum was involved in negotiations with Brussels to end the abuse of free movement.
He has been in his current job since March 2017 but has been at the heart of immigration policy since 2006, when he was director of visa services. He has also served as director of asylum.
File photo dated June 22, 1948, of Jamaican immigrants being welcomed by RAF officials from the Colonial Office after the ex-troopship HMT Empire Windrush landed them at Tilbury
Mr Williams was head of migration policy at the Home Office between August 2010 and 2013
What is the Windrush scandal and how did the fiasco develop?
June 22, 1948 – The Empire Windrush passenger ship docked at Tilbury from Jamaica.
The 492 passengers were temporarily housed near Brixton in London. Over the following decades some 500,000 came to the UK.
Many arrived on their parents’ passports and were not formally naturalised as British citizens.
1973 – A new immigration Act comes into force putting the onus on individuals to prove they have previously been resident in the UK.
2010 – The Home Office destroyed thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants’ arrival dates in the UK.
The move came despite staff warnings that the move would make it harder to check the records of older Caribbean-born residents experiencing residency difficulties, it was claimed
2014 – A protection that exempted Commonwealth residents from enforced removal was removed under a new law. Theresa May was Home Secretary at the time.
Under a crackdown on illegals, Windrush immigrants are obliged to provide proof they were resident in the UK before 1973.
July 2016 – Mrs May becomes Prime Minister.
April 2018 – Allegations that Windrush immigrants are being threatened with deportation break. Theresa May issued a grovelling apology to Caribbean leaders after major backlash
April 29 – Amber Rudd resigns after inadvertently misleading Parliament by wrongly claiming there were no deportation targets
Advertisement
