UK’s hostile environment policies ‘disproportionately impact’ people of colour

Mary Atkinson of migrants’ rights charity JCWI said: ‘This report lays out what communities of colour have been saying for over a decade: this government’s hostile environment is racist.’ Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The Home Office’s hostile environment policies appear to have had a disproportionately negative impact on people of colour, a government evaluation of the legislation has shown.

The long-awaited impact assessment of the package of hostile environment measures which were introduced when David Cameron was prime minister, and later rebranded as “compliant environment” policies, reveals for the first time the government’s own assessment of the legislation’s potential risks.