" The Home Office is to be investigated by the UK’s equality watchdog after random spot-checks for illegal immigrants were reportedly aimed only at people from ethnic minorities. The stop-and-search style checks, performed yesterday outside London railway stations, contributed to a total of 139 arrests in a series of immigration raids around the country. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will investigate the spot-checks and a controversial advertisement campaign in which posters bearing the words “illegal immigrants – go home or face arrest” are displayed on the side of vans. A spokesman said this afternoon: “The commission is writing today to the Home Office about these reported operations, confirming that it will be examining the powers used and the justification for them, in order to assess whether unlawful discrimination took place. “The letter will also ask questions about the extent to which the Home Office complied with its public sector equality duty when planning the recent advertising campaign targeted at illegal migration.” Immigration enforcement officers in stab-proof vests were reportedly posted outside Kilburn, Walthamstow, Cricklewood and Stratford Underground stations, and witnesses reported that only people from ethnic minorities were stopped. Doreen Lawrence, newly nominated for a seat in the House of Lords, criticised the operation. “Why would you focus mainly on people of colour?” she asked. “I’m sure there are illegal immigrants from all countries, but why would you focus that on people of colour, and I think racial profiling is coming into it.” Mrs Lawrence, mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, said that she would bring up the issue when she took her seat in the Lords. She spoke as Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, wrote to Theresa May demanding that she investigate her department’s new tactic. “We do not yet live in a society where the police, or any other officers of the law, are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers,” he said. “The actions of your department would however appear to be hastening us in that direction.” Chris Bryant, the Shadow Immigration Minister, has called on the Home Secretary to give reassurances that people were not being stopped by immigration officials on the grounds of ethnicity. “Intelligence-led operations to remove illegal immigrants are to be welcomed. Racial profiling is not,” he said. Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, said he was “disgusted” by the tactics of a Government he accused of “panicking” over immigration. He said: “The worst thing for the fabric of society in any country anywhere is to have a sudden mass influx of people from elsewhere. It doesn’t matter where they are from or what colour they may be, suddenly changing the face of any community will cause a degree of upset. “This is then made even worse when an inept and panicking Government tries to sort the problem out in an overly fast and heavy-handed manner. It’s disgraceful. I am deeply disturbed by what I am hearing.”
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 15:37:08 +0000
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