Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Monday 30 april 2018

UK interior minister quits over

growing immigration scandal

By JILL LAWLESS vironment” for illegal immi- movals by 10 percent.
Associated Press grants. Immigration is a divisive
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Legal migrants have been issue in Britain, with cut-
interior minister resigned denied housing, jobs or ting the inflow of migrants
Sunday amid a scandal medical treatment be- a major factor for many
over authorities’ mistreat- cause of requirements that voters who backed leav-
ment of long-term U.K. resi- landlords, employers and ing the European Union.
dents wrongly caught up doctors check people’s The government has an
in a government drive to immigration status. Oth- oft-stated but long-unmet
reduce illegal immigration. ers have been told by the goal of reducing net im-
Prime Minister Theresa government that they are migration below 100,000 In this Wednesday, March 14, 2018 file photo Britain’s Home
May’s office said late Sun- in Britain illegally and must people a year, less than Secretary Amber Rudd leaves 10 Downing Street in London.
day that May had accept- leave. half the current level.q Associated Press
ed the resignation of Home “What has happened to
Secretary Amber Rudd. the Windrush generation
Rudd had been due to isn’t an anomaly. It’s not
make a statement to Parlia- due to an administrative
ment on Monday over the error. It’s a consequence
“Windrush scandal,” which of the hostile environment
has dominated headlines created by this (Conser-
in Britain for days and has vative) government,” Lon-
sparked intense criticism of don Mayor Sadiq Khan, a
the Conservative govern- member of the opposition
ment’s tough immigration Labour Party, said Sunday.
policies. The policy was introduced
The furor has grown since at a time when May, now
the Guardian newspaper the prime minister, was
reported that some peo- home secretary.
ple who came to the U.K. The opposition Liberal
from the Caribbean in the Democrat party’s home af-
decades after World War II fairs spokesman, Ed Davey,
had recently been refused said Rudd had become
medical care in Britain or “the fall guy to protect the
threatened with deporta- prime minister.”
tion because they could In recent weeks Rudd and
not produce paperwork May have apologized re-
proving their right to reside peatedly to the Windrush
in the country. generation, saying all pre-
Those affected belong to 1973 Commonwealth immi-
the “Windrush generation,” grants who don’t already
named for the ship Empire have British citizenship will
Windrush, which in 1948 get it, and those affected
brought hundreds of Carib- will get compensation.
bean immigrants to Britain, Rudd’s position worsened
which was seeking nurses, after she told lawmakers
railway workers and others last week that the govern-
to help it rebuild after the ment did not have targets
devastation of World War II. for deporting people —
They and subsequent Ca- only for a 2017 memo to
ribbean migrants came emerge that mentioned
from British colonies or ex- specific targets for “en-
colonies and had an au- forced removals.”
tomatic right to settle in Rudd said she didn’t see
the U.K. But some have the memo, but The Guard-
been ensnared by tough ian later published a
new rules introduced since leaked letter she wrote to
2012 that were intended to the prime minister discuss-
make Britain a “hostile en- ing an aim of increasing re-