At least 11 people wrongly deported from the UK in the Windrush scandal have since died, Home Secretary Sajid Javid has admitted.
The toll may be even higher, campaigners fear, after Mr javid said his officials had been unable to contact many people caught up in the deportations.
Javid supplied the new figures to the Commons home affairs select committee, admitting there had been 83 cases of people being wrongfully removed.
Home Office officials believe there may be another 81 cases of British citizens of Caribbean heritage being wrongfully removed from the country.
The deportations were part of the Home Office’s ‘hostile environment’ policy introduced by then Home Secretary Theresa May.
Her successor Amber Rudd was forced to resign when the scandal was uncovered by The Guardian newspaper earlier this year.
Mrs May has defended the hostile environment, saying: “If you talk to the public, they want to know that we are dealing with people who come to the UK illegally.”
Home affairs select committee chair Yvette Cooper and her colleagues were told in a letter from Javid that 83 people had been wrongly deported.
Home Office officials had contacted 42 of those affected but another 33 have still not been traced, he said.
Eight of these were found to have died in addition to three others who had already passed away after deportation.
The total could go higher after the Home Office admitted it would no longer exclude people who were acquitted or not prosecuted after being accused of minor offences.
Javid’s letter added: “I can reassure members that my department remains entirely focussed on righting the wrongs experienced by the Windrush generation.”
But shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the latest figures were “a disgrace” and called for an end to the hostile environment policy.
She added: “Deaths of deported British citizens and deportations for convictions that never existed all point to the real evils of the hostile environment.”
“We still do not know the true scale of this scandal, like how many people were deported and imprisoned.
“The government refuses to implement a hardship fund, even though it’s clear the compensation scheme will not be available for many months.
“The Windrush generation must have justice and the hostile environment must end.”
