Home Office target-chasing behind student detention, says MP

Shiromini Satkunarajah is a Tamil who had fled Sri Lanka as a child

Home Office "target-chasing" was behind the detention of a Bangor University student and a threat to deport her, a Plaid Cymru MP has claimed.

It follows revelations immigration teams were set targets for voluntary departures of people regarded as having no right to stay in the UK.

Hywel Williams told MPs Shiromini Satkunarajah was detained as she was "low-hanging fruit" to hit targets.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has admitted "local targets" had been set.

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Challenging Ms Rudd in the Commons, Mr Williams said he had been puzzled why Ms Satkunarajah was wrongly held at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire in February 2017.

"The answer now seems to be clear," he said. "She was a Tamil who escaped from Sri Lanka as a child and was reporting to the police station as she was required to under law, doing her duty under law.

"She was, to use that horrible, dehumanising phrase 'low-hanging fruit'. What is the home secretary now doing to identify and provide redress to those not of the Windrush generation but whose lives have been wrongly disrupted by Home Office target-chasing?"

Ms Satkunarajah and her mother Roshina had their deportation called off after the Arfon MP's intervention.

MPs on the home affairs committee were told that local managers would instruct staff to look for the easiest "low-hanging fruit" to meet targets.

Ms Rudd told Mr Williams: "I would never use that phrase and it is not an approach that I would want anybody to take who works in the Home Office.

"I have said that as a result of the Windrush changes I'm making sure that the Home Office has a more human face so I'm setting up a new contact centre.

"I'm making sure there are more senior case workers to make sure that more junior case workers have the confidence to make their decisions by engaging with someone who's really experienced.

"I accept we need to make the Home Office more personal and I will be doing that."