Interim leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Gerard Batten criticized British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's proposed mass amnesty to illegal migrants in the UK, which he suggested to end the Windrush scandal.
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"Boris Johnson has dusted down his old desire to provide a massive amnesty for illegal immigrants to this country. The Foreign Secretary is using the appalling failures of the Home Office over the 'Windrush Children,' British citizens of decades standing who through incompetence have suffered indignity, discrimination and worse to burnish his 'liberal credentials,'" UKIP interim leader Gerard Batten said on Wednesday according to a party press release.
"He is asking for at least 500,000, possibly in the realms of over 1 million people to be given British citizenship, despite the fact they are in this country illegally."
He went on to say that it would be as "irresponsible" as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy called for "decency and fair play to those who come here legally."
The Windrush generation were invited by the British government to the UK after World War II, and many have settled here since. Despite this, the Home Office recently asked members of the Windrush generation to clarify their immigration status and prove their right to remain in the UK.
READ MORE: Windrush: Britons Asked to ‘Prove They are Worthy of Citizenship’