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Breaking up the ‘failing’ Home Office and replacing it with a department dedicated to infrastructure and integration would reset the UK’s ‘broken’ relationship with migration, said Green MP Carla Denyer, after a new report found that the Home Office is not fit for purpose.
The report, ‘No Way Home?’ commissioned by Denyer and written by migration expert Zoe Gardner, finds that poor management of public funds, a lack of accountability, and a failure to learn from mistakes have led to repeated scandals – as a result of which all major stakeholders have lost trust in the department.
Meanwhile according to Gardner’s analysis the Home Office’s remit itself leads to damaging outcomes, by linking immigration with security instead of addressing needs related to migration such as infrastructure or community cohesion.
The report also highlights a wide spectrum of politicians, think-tanks, academics and experts calling for dismantling or radical restructuring, including Institute for Government and the Adam Smith Institute, as well as migrants’ rights organisations and criminal justice groups.
Launching the report, Carla Denyer MP said that breaking up the ‘failing’ Home Office would be a crucial step towards re-setting the UK’s ‘broken’ relationship with migration.
Carla Denyer, Green Party Co-Leader and MP for Bristol Central, said:
“Whether for it’s for work, for love, or to flee danger – people move, and it’s government’s job to make it work for us and our communities.
“But decades of finger-pointing at migrants as a cover for government failure and neglect have broken this country’s relationship with migration – and the Home Office sits at the heart of the problem.
“Rather than harnessing benefits of migration and effectively managing the challenges it throws up, the Home Office is designed to simply treat movement as a crime – resulting in families torn apart, taxpayer money wasted, and communities divided.
“It’s time to get rid of the failing Home Office and replace it with a common-sense system to properly manage migration – one driven not by an imperative to drive down numbers or grab headlines but which instead is concerned with integration, infrastructure, and this country’s economic needs.”
Zoe Gardner, independent researcher on migration who authored the report, said:
“Watching the political handling of immigration I see a startling complacency on the part of much of the Westminster bubble. Politicians from many parties are oblivious to the scale of change that the people of this country are demanding.
“That change is going to come, and it could be positive and focused on ways to better support migrants and local communities. If not, it will be driven by racist narratives – and be very ugly indeed.
“This report shows that the Green Party is taking that need for radical change seriously, and trying to steer us towards a more hopeful future.”
You can read the full report here.