18 Windrush Brits were wrongly detained and told to leave UK, Home Secretary admits for the first time

NEARLY 20 Brits from the Windrush generation were wrongly locked up and told to leave the country, Sajid Javid admitted today.

The Home Secretary confirmed for the first time that 18 middle-aged and elderly Caribbean immigrants were wrongly detained.

And 11 of them were removed from the UK and sent back to their country of birth - even though they qualified for British citizenship.

Mr Javid today formally apologised to those who were put through the ordeal of being told they were being deported.

He also pledged that all of those who were sent to the Caribbean can come back to Britain and settle here for life.

But four of the 18 people affected still haven't been tracked down by Government officials - meaning they may not even know their treatment was unlawful.

Amber Rudd, who quit as Home Secretary over the Windrush crisis, insisted in April that no one had been wrongly deported as a result of the scandal.

But Home Office investigators have scoured records dating back two decades and found the 18 cases.

All of those involved moved from the Caribbean to Britain before 1973 - meaning they gained the automatic right to stay here permanently and become a citizen.

But because they were unable to produce the paperwork, they were told they were actually illegal immigrants.

Of those detained, seven were released before being removed from Britain, while the others voluntarily left the country.

Six of the cases date back to the previous Labour Government, while the other 12 took place under the Tories.

Mr Javid said: "I would like to personally apologise to those identified in our review and am committed to providing them with the support and compensation they deserve.

"We must do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this happens again – which is why I have asked an independent adviser to look at what lessons we can learn from Windrush."

Nearly 4,000 Windrush generation migrants have been given documents which will allow them to stay in Britain since the scandal broke earlier this year.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "This apology is overdue and is nowhere near good enough.

"The Government has still not got a final figure on how many of our fellow citizens were deported, forced into so-called ‘voluntary removals’ or detained as prisoners in their own country.

"It is an insult that the Home Secretary has still failed to confirm when the promised compensation scheme will be up and running, after so many of our fellow citizens have been left destitute, in debt and jobless by the Government’s hostile environment."

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