Yesterday, we got hold of this Deportation and Charter Flights Factsheet, dated Thursday. It concerns the planned removals of the #Jamaica50 scheduled for next Wednesday, 2 Dec. It’s not on the @ukhomeoffice website. [1/30] scribd.com/document/48608…
We contacted them to establish if it was legitimate. They said the doc “did come from the Home Office”, but “hasn’t been uploaded to gov.uk yet”, and was “provided to a number of stakeholders” following requests for information on the planned deportations. [2/30]
It struck us as odd that a doc of clear public interest, setting out the HO’s position on a wildly controversial matter, and providing a few mildly exonerating tidbits at that, wouldn’t be made publicly available. (There are now 2 working days left to the deadline.) [3/30]
We then heard that this company was responsible for distributing this document to those “stakeholders”. [4/30] mmc-uk.co.uk
We tweeted them, and didn’t hear back. So we went looking elsewhere, specifically to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015/102. [5/30]
By Schedule 1, par 1 of those regulations, @ukhomeoffice is a Central Government Authority. That means that by the govt’s own guidance, it has to publish certain details of contracts above £10k in value, such as the name of the supplier. [6/30]
There are some exceptions, as seen is the second image above. They can’t possibly apply here. (We’re low on energy rn, but if anyone wants to contend with this later, we’re here, and basically - no.) [7/30]
Post-Feb 2015 contracts are published on Contracts Finder. We searched for every contract on that database with “home office” in it. There were 2,400 results. Handily, these can be downloaded as CSVs and reformatted into Excel spreadsheets. [8/30]
We started off by searching for @MulticulturalMC, using the phrase “MMC”. There were no results. So, on the assumption that perhaps the company wasn’t involved, we expanded the parameters a little, and ended up searching all these terms. [9/30]
There were no relevant hits for any of those search phrases, which were deliberately broad to capture not just the name of that company, but any mention of management, consulting or advisory work, of any kind. [10/30]
1 of 4 things is possible: (A) a scope of work including distributing targeted factsheets to stakeholders was described in some way excluding those terms; (B) it wasn’t outsourced at all; (C) the contract is for less than £10k; or (D) the contract hasn’t been published. [11/30]
We’re ruling out (A) for basic sanity purposes - the CSV table includes a substantive description of each tender, and we haven’t a clue how work that comprises distributing a factsheet - at a minimum - could fail to use any of the searched word stubs. [12/30]
As to (B), whether this was outsourced or not (and that *is* important), the point is it isn’t publicly available, and so it can’t be thoroughly scrutinised. Coming from an organisation that, well: [13/30]
We’ve since been told that the doc was created by the Windrush Cross-Government Working Group to prevent the spread of misinformation, by a member of that group. So theory (B) - that this isn’t a piece of outsourced work - is certainly possible. [14/30]
We were surprised to be told this. Here are the stated purposes of the Windrush Cross-Government Working Group (CGWG).

You will note the singular absence of a line item on carrying out @ukhomeoffice’s media enquiries work on deportations. [15/30]
Aside from the fact that the CGWG exists to *support Windrush victims*, and not to do the Home Office’s work on explaining itself (which obligation is anyway to the entire general public, not just Windrush victims), the TORs for the CGWG say this: [16/30]
That, plus the assertion that the CGWG did this to prevent the spread of misinformation stuck in our collective craw. There are multiple accounts of detainees being denied meaningful access to their solicitors, contrary to what this document says. [17/30]
That is one amongst many. And don’t just take it from us proles; @HollyLynch5 MP has written to the Minister for Immigration this morning, specifically citing a report that at least one detainee is a Windrush descendant. [18/30]
The “factsheet” is pretty adamant that there is no Windrush overlap. Wouldn’t it save our parliamentarians a lot of bother if this information was out in public for everyone to peruse, and not being selectively distributed by the CGWG to Windrushers? [19/30]
This is targeted propaganda. The CGWG - funded and appointed to protect the best interests of Windrush victims, because successive govts hung them out to dry, is instead sending them very much disputed “facts” on deportations. We invite comment from @ukhomeoffice. [20/30]
Back to the 4 propositions set out in part 11 above. Keeping all assumptions open - b/c none of them imply good things - if (C) this *was* outsourced, contrary to the proclamation of the CGWG member, and the contract was worth less than £10k, it needn't be published. [21/30]
We have no idea how much this type of service goes for, so we simply have to leave that open, i.e. it is possible that production and/or distribution of this document was outsourced, under a non-disclosable contract, which would be above board, if morally repugnant. [22/30]
Doesn’t change the fact that it's been selectively distributed rather than openly published for all, including our MPs, to scrutinise.

This - by far the *least* damaging version of this debacle - implies the HO is withholding a factsheet on deportations in 4 days. [23/30]
Which leaves (D): some or all of this *has* been outsourced (contrary to the claim of the CGWG member), under a contract worth more than £10k… and it hasn’t been published, as required by law. [24/30]
We should note that the CGWG member says they do not know anything about a “distribution contract”. (We didn’t ask them anything about a distribution contract - in fact, we didn’t ask them anything at all. But we have tweeted about it, so.) [25/30]
Not much is known at present about how the £500k assigned for Windrush “community engagement” has been disbursed. Options A, B and D do not bode well - this is @ukhomeoffice learning from mistakes, “righting the wrongs”, doing its best to serve a demographic it has abused. [26/30
But, it could be the best-case scenario, we guess. That’s the one where the government is withholding from the general public a factsheet on deportations and charter flights 4 days before those deportations will take place… for no apparent reason. [27/30]
We’ve said our piece on why these deportations cannot proceed without much more scrutiny, at the absolute minimum. Having reached the end of this thread, can you blame us for wanting @ukhomeoffice to show every scrap of its workings? [28/30]
We’ve asked @ukhomeoffice to confirm if there are more of these… factsheets. And to see copies if so. No word yet, but to be fair, it is a Saturday. [29/30]
NB: Please follow @BARACUK @sdetsup @followMFJ @DetentionAction and @BIDdetention for more on the unravelling #Jamaica50 deportation crisis. And listen to this account from a woman whose partner is supposed to be on that flight. [30/30]
Primary Source [1]: Public Contracts Regulations 2015 legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/102/…
Primary Source [2]: Government guidance on data transparency assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
Primary Source [3]: Contracts Finder, which btw, is an amusing diversion if you, like the author, have absolute ****-all more interesting going on in your life contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search
Primary Source [4]: This is company to which some part of this work has allegedly been outsourced - Multicultural Marketing Consultancy Ltd …te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/079871…

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More from @WindrushLives

27 Nov
This is @ukhomeoffice's factsheet in response to the planned removals on 2 December. Not entirely clear why it hasn't been published on gov.uk, but it is genuine and its provenance has been confirmed. Some thoughts: [1/10] #Jamaica50
scribd.com/document/48608…
Firstly, it's sneaky, not to mention suspicious, to not make a document like this publicly available asap, when it's clearly a matter of public interest, and the event in question is fewer than 3 working days away. Just a gripe, but. [2/10]
S 32(5) of the UK Borders Act 2007 does compel the Secretary of State to make a deportation order when a person meets the conditions in either of s 32(2) or (3); in (very) short, if they've had a sentence of at least 12 months, or it's a serious crime. [3/10]
Read 4 tweets
25 Nov
In the past 10 days, the @ukhomeoffice has:
(i) arranged deportations to Jamaica (cf Feb 2020) in the middle of a pandemic, where some detainees will not have had any family contact before deportation, on unknown legal grounds (yes, b/c really, can they be trusted?) [1/6]
(ii) had a whistleblower - senior ex-official @cheamfields (Alex Ankrah) expose jaw-dropping racism within its ranks that conclusively disqualifies it from having control of ANYTHING intended to “right the wrongs” committed upon Windrushers; [2/6] theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/n…
(iii) had its head, @pritipatel, pretty deafeningly un-exonerated of a campaign of bullying so toxic a mandarin on a £190k salary is pursuing an ET action that won’t net anywhere *near* that instead of taking a settlement out of rage/spite; [3/6] google.co.uk/amp/s/www.busi…
Read 10 tweets
19 Nov
On the heels of yday’s revelations from @cheamfields re racism in the Home Office, here is an **old article** by a senior member of the government’s Windrush Cross Government Working Group. This person was vetted (presumably) and appointed [1/11]

drjoealdred.info/a-story-of-und…
to this post, in which he is expected to advocate FOR Windrush victims and facilitate justice for them, by @ukhomeoffice. [2/11]
To be clear, we don’t know if Bishop Aldred would still stand by all of the views expressed in this post, which dates to June 2018. But some of the views expressed here are not of the type likely to change. For example: [3/11]
Read 11 tweets
19 Nov
There were distressing reports yesterday that chartered deportation flights to Jamaica are being resumed, with one scheduled for 2 Dec. Aspects of these removals have been deemed unlawful by the Court of Appeal. [1/13] independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
It is unclear whether deportations are being carried out lawfully at present, but we're not bursting with confidence that they are, to put it mildly, given the revelations of the past few days. [2/13] theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/n…
What *is* clear is that we now have parallel seams of human rights abuses being perpetrated simultaneously against Black and brown people, largely of limited economic means - the #WindrushScandal, which relates to deprivation of UK residency/citizenship and documentation; [4/13]
Read 12 tweets
2 Oct
We live-tweeted the evidence of @MatthewRycroft1 at the @CommonsPAC, chaired by @Meg_HillierMP and feat. @YvetteCooperMP (chair of @CommonsHomeAffs) precisely 22 days ago. Mr Rycroft was giving evidence on the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Badly. [1/12]
In the pvt sector, turning up to a board meeting this poorly briefed wld be unprofessional at least and sackable at worst. @MatthewRycroft1 and his @ukhomeoffice colleagues didn't have basic numbers (which are published) or facts, and didn't seem embarrassed about it. [2/12]
It wasn't just us, biased as we obviously are, who thought that. @Meg_HillierMP and @YvetteCooperMP wrote to the Home Office shortly after, requesting all the data and clarifications that couldn't be given at the session. [3/12]
Read 15 tweets
29 Sep
It's quite disappointing to see Martin Forde QC imply that most/all criticism of the Scheme is unfair/incorrect.

Seriously, we set up a whole Twitter account. It is categorically untrue that the Scheme is good by design. #AJC #AdministrativeJusticeCouncil
He is however deeply correct that "mitigation" - as we've banged on about at length - is not a useful concept in this concept.
(We're live-tweeting this AJC @ajc_justice Windrush Webinar, in case you're wondering what all this is about.)
Read 50 tweets

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