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WINDRUSH SCANDAL: The Home Office has come under fire for destroying Windrush landing cards

THOUSANDS OF landing cards that belonged to commonwealth migrants of the Windrush generation have been shredded. The paperwork was destroyed after the 2010 closure of the Home Office in Croydon, south London.

The documents were a crucial source of evidence that proved the migrants’ legal residency in Britain, which could have helped resolve the status of those at risk of deportation today, whistleblowers have said.

Outraged at the latest developments, Tottenham MP David Lammy said: “This revelation from a whistleblower reveals that the problems being faced by the Windrush generation are not down to one off bureaucratic errors but as a direct result of systematic incompetence, callousness and cruelty within our immigration system.

“This was no accident and the orders to destroy records must have come from somebody at the top of the department. It is time for the home secretary to do the honourable thing, take responsibility for this fiasco and resign.”

In BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Labour MP and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: “So many things have gone wrong.” She added that Amber Rudd should take responsibility.

She too urged for the home secretary Rudd to “consider her position” over the “misery” caused to British residents of the Windrush generation.

The destruction of the archives occurred when Theresa May was home secretary last year.

The Home Office has claimed that the destruction of the Windrush landing cards has had no impact on the individuals' rights to stay in the UK.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, May told Caribbean leaders: “I want to apologise to you today because we are genuinely sorry for any anxiety that has been caused.”

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