Immigration officers ‘fearful’ of complaints in the aftermath of Windrush

Windrush sensitivities are making immigration and border force officers “fearful” of complaints if they arrest and try to deport illegal migrants, a former head of the border force has warned.

Tony Smith, a former director general of the Border Force, also criticised the ditching of targets for removals after Amber Rudd’s resignation over the Windrush affair, which meant officers “don’t know what good looks like".

In an interview with the Telegraph, he said morale was at an all-time low because immigration enforcement did not feel supported by public or civil servants in tackling illegal immigration.

He claimed immigration enforcement was “broken” as lawyers exploited the system to create barriers that made the removal of illegal immigrants from the UK “highly unlikely".

His comments come after Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was forced to abandon a deportation flight returning 23 illegal Channel migrants to Spain after human rights lawyers mounted last-minute legal actions. Dozens of illegal immigrants, and as many as 100, made the crossing Tuesday.

“Immigration enforcement in this country is broken,” said Mr Smith. “They are talking a good game and putting all sorts of comms out but it is not translating into operational reality. We are going to see more of these flights being blocked and of aborted deportation attempts.”

Deportations have fallen 34 per cent in a year to their lowest on record. Official data shows just 5,304 enforced returns of foreign nationals in the 12 months to June, and 8,088 voluntary returns.

“It is very clear that we have lost our way on whether we are prepared to have immigration enforcement in this country,” he said.

“If immigration officers drive into cities with enforcement vans they are tracked by activists, they get sprayed, their tyres are let down and the vans get vandalised. They are intimidated by people who simply don’t accept the principle of having immigration enforcement.”

He added: “They are fearful of arresting someone they should not because of Windrush, and that there will be a huge inquiry in the Home Office as to why they arrested someone.”

He said this was compounded by legal actions against deportation.

“You have to allow them 72 hours to take legal advice. The legal advice will be some barrier as to why this person cannot be removed from this country. It might be an asylum application, it might be a human rights application,” he said.

“There is an industry now where lawyers will be notified whenever there is an enforcement operation and immediately intervene. It is very easy to stop a removal through the judicial process. The officers know the best they will get is an arrest.

“But there’s no point arresting them if you are not going to deport them. All other things being equal if you are here illegally you should be deported. Yet enforcement removals are at an all-time low.

“I am convinced that is partly to do with a fear of being complained about for your job. Why would you arrest someone?”

Citing the row over targets for removals when Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretary, he said: “Most organisations have targets. I certainly had targets when I was there. Those targets have completely been taken out of the business. It means you don’t know what good looks like.”

Tyson Hepple, Director General of Immigration Enforcement said: “These claims are not true. We expect people to leave the country voluntarily but, where they do not, Immigration Enforcement will seek to enforce their departure and we have a wide range of interventions at our disposal to deter non-compliance, support voluntary return and take enforcement action where necessary.

“The Windrush Generation became entangled in set of measures designed to stop illegal immigration and Home Secretary has been clear that what happened is unspeakable and has apologised unreservedly. As we have set out, we are absolutely committed to putting people before process and that means making fair decisions on legitimate asylum claims.”

Ms Patel is said privately to have admitted the system is “broken” and is planning to overhaul asylum laws which she has reportedly claimed are being “exploited by leftie Labour-supporting lawyers” who were doing everything to stop the Government removing people.

She is working on a “fair borders bill,” to be introduced this year, which would stop people drawing out the asylum applications process by making them declare all their grounds for refugee status when they apply, rather than being able to submit new reasons later.

She is said to have been “furious” at last week’s legal moves to stop the removal of the migrants to Spain.