Sajid Javid replaces Rudd as UK Home Secretary
New minister faces big task in clearing up immigration scandal
Sajid Javid was appointed as UK Home Secretary on Monday, replacing Amber Rudd who resigned after she misled parliament over deportation targets.
The appointment of Javid, the son of a Pakistani bus driver who emigrated to the UK in the 1960s, will be seen as a move by Downing Street that it has recognised the damage done to relations with Britain's immigrant community.
Javid's old job will be taken by James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland secretary, who stood down in January to have a tumour removed from his lung.
One of the first tasks for Javid is clearing up the fallout from the so-called “Windrush” scandal, where Caribbean migrants who moved to the UK after World War 2 have been systematically victimised and threatened with dentention and deportation.
Many have lost their jobs along with their rights to benefits and health care despite being protected by a 1973 law that gave them citizenship. Under May's rule as Home Secretary, regulations were tightened up and thousands of people found themselves without the required documentation as she openly created a “hostile environment” for migrants.
This included using advertising vans telling illegal immigrants to “Go Home” or face deportation.
Rudd enthusiastically pursued the policy when she took over, but its brutal impact on people who had grown up in the UK was exposed over the course of the past year by the Guardian newspaper.
After growing public outrage over the scandal, Rudd was forced to reverse course, set up a special unit within her department to deal with the crisis amd agree that those affected would be granted formal citizenship and be paid compensation.