Recent events have revealed the extent to which the Home Office and successive home secretaries have been driven by inappropriate business models in managing immigration and have been not only incompetent but callous in dealing with human dignity and liberty (The Windrush scandal demands a new policy to go with a new home secretary, 1 May).

Many know that I am in favour of a “fair but firm” policy which takes account of those who already live here and their needs but which should also reflect a commitment to natural justice rather than to arbitrary targets derived from the world of business.

The fundamental problem with the Home Office’s policies is that it has framed immigration criteria on the basis of wealth and property rather than on grounds of justice and compassion. Thus visitors and students can only come here, even if they have sponsors here, if they have sufficient wealth and property at home. British citizens, similarly, may only marry foreign spouses if they have sufficient funds available to do so, thus depriving the poor of a basic right to family life, which continues to be enjoyed by EU citizens living here.

It is entirely right that visitors, students and spouses should not have recourse to public funds, but this can be ensured by a proper system of sponsorship for visitors and students, and the right to work for foreign spouses of British citizens. What we have, at the moment, is immigration for the rich on the dubious grounds that they “integrate better”. This is shameful for a country which has a long tradition of welcoming people here for study, experience or work regardless of their economic or social standing.

I do hope that the new home secretary will be able to look at the fundamental problems underlying our immigration laws and policies rather than just presenting an acceptable face of endemic injustice.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
London

• As Hugh Muir reminds us (Windrush was a scandal just waiting to happen, 1 May), these are testing times for minority communities in Britain. The extent of institutional racism, together with the rise of xenophobia, Islamophobia and antisemitism, should alarm us all. What should our response be? Should we pull up our respective drawbridges, or find new ways of building bridges between us?

One model was provided by the Black/Asian/Jewish Forum, an informal collective of activists, academics, writers and faith leaders who met, usually in someone’s home, to offer support, insight and leadership to those of us who were struggling to deal effectively with the challenges. Moral leadership from BAME and religious groups, as well as political leadership, is needed now more than ever. So is a willingness to listen, to learn and to heal. We believe that our different communities have a common interest, along with the population as a whole, in uniting to resolve the issues that have the potential to cause division.

One important place to start would be to come together to root out the online hate speech which has for too long been allowed to poison political discourse in Britain.
Simon Woolley Director, Operation Black Vote, Dr Edie Friedman Executive director, Jewish Council for Racial Equality, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Geoffrey Bindman QC, Radhika Bynon, Professor Francesca Klug, Major (Retired) RAI Laher, Dr Richard Stone

• The scandal of deportation targets caused the resignation of Amber Rudd (Report, 30 April), but the use of secretive, brutal and legally questionable deportation charter flights to achieve those targets shows no sign of abating under the new home secretary, Sajid Javid, despite the public outcry over Windrush. The Home Office is still threatening to send people to Jamaica against their will. People have been sent letters telling them they are “to be removed on a specially chartered flight to Jamaica”.

Many have testified to the trauma of deportation charter flights because of the short notice, violent conditions, previous experience of trauma or torture, interruptions of applications to remain and fears for their safety on arrival in the destination country.

It is clear that this government’s immigration policy is not fit for purpose, and without immediate reform will continue to lead to wrongful, illegal deportations and miscarriages of justice. We call for an immediate end to deportation targets and an immediate end to cruel and inhumane deportation charter flights.
David Lammy MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Lisa Matthews Coordinator, Right to Remain, Zrinka Bralo Migrants Organise, Nick Dearden Global Justice Now, Callum Tulley G4S whistleblower, Gary Christie Scottish Refugee Council, Rosalind Ereira Solidarity with Refugees, Clare Moseley Care4Calais, Chris Jarvis People & Planet, Asad Rehman War on Want, Sian Berry Green party member of the London Assembly, Ken Loach, Sue Johnston, Rev Robert Wiggs, Paul Laverty, Rebecca O’Brien, Anders Lustgarten

• Is it too late to suggest to the new home secretary that a simple way to humanise the “hostile environment” slogan would be to accentuate the positive? It could become “A welcoming environment for legal immigrants”. Much the same as before, but kinder.
Bob Caldwell
Daventry, Northamptonshire

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