The UK's ethnic minorities have been "disproportionately" affected by the government's austerity and immigration policies, a UN inspector has said.
Tendayi Achiume, the Special Rapporteur on Racism, criticised the "hostile environment" brought in by Theresa May when she was home secretary to clamp down on illegal immigrants. People who came to the UK from mainly Caribbean countries between the late 1940s and 1970s, had faced deportation as well as problems accessing healthcare or proving they had the legal right to be employed.
Ms Achiume said the Windrush Generation faced "gross human rights violations and indignities" as a result of government policies.
She recommended the government repeal the sections of the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Act which require landlords and employers to check a person's right to be in the UK. It was "no surprise that a policy that ostensibly seeks to target only irregular immigrants is destroying the lives and livelihoods of racial and ethnic minority communities more broadly", she said.
Ms Achiume said she was "shocked" to find young black men were "over-represented" in police stop and searches and in the prison system. She added: "Unsurprisingly, austerity has had especially pronounced inter-sectional consequences, making women of colour the worst affected."
Her statement cites estimates from the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggesting that austerity measures have been "disproportionately detrimental" to racial and ethnic minority communities.
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