HOME Secretary Priti Patel has said her response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review has been "swift, strong and uncompromising".
Making a statement in the Commons, Patel said: "Over £1.5 million has now been offered by the Windrush compensation scheme."
She added: "This is just the beginning. Urgent and extensive work is taking place across the Home Office and beyond on all the recommendations. Together, the permanent secretary and I are reviewing every aspect of how the department operates, its leadership, the culture, policies, practices and the way it views and treats all parts of the communities it serves."
Patel added that her ambition is for "a fair, humane, compassionate and outward-looking Home Office that represents people from every corner of our diverse society".
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The Home Secretary told MPs: "A series of reconciliation events to rebuild the relationship between the Home Office and those who were affected will now take place. This is an essential step to enable people whose lives were shattered because of Windrush to directly articulate the impact this scandal has had on their lives. We must learn from the past."
The Windrush scandal saw thousands of UK residents wrongly flagged up as being in the country illegally by the Home Office. Many of those affected by the scandal had travelled to the UK as children on their parents' passports who had been granted indefinite leave to remain in 1971.
Despite having a right to live in the UK, some without documents were asked for evidence to continue working or access services, and were detained, denied legal rights and even deported to Caribbean countries.
The official human rights watchdog in England and Wales announced last month that it would be launching legal action to review the Conservative “hostile environment” policy devised by former home secretary Theresa May, which led to the scandal.
And despite Patel's claims today, victims of the scandal have made it known that the compensation scheme has been too slow and problematic.
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Reacting to today's update, Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told the Government to "get a grip", and pointed out that despite the scandal being widespread, application numbers for the compensation scheme do not appear to reflect that.
He highlighted the fact that the Home Office only managed to compensate 60 people in the scheme's first year.
The Guardian reported last week that at least five people have died before receiving a payment, despite filing a claim for compensation.
Patel continued: "Mandatory training is being introduced for new and existing members of the Home Office staff to ensure everyone working across the department understands and appreciates the history of migration and race across the country.
"There are simply not enough individuals from black, Asian or minority ethnic staff working at the top in senior roles and there are far too many times where I am the only non-white face in the room.
"Action must happen now. So right now, I am introducing more diverse shortlists for senior jobs, specialist mentoring and sponsorship programmes to help develop a wider pool of talent and drive cultural change."
Patel added that everyone in the Home Office making decisions "must see a face behind the case".
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She told MPs: "The injustices of Windrush did not happen because Home Office staff were bad people, but because staff themselves were caught up in a system where they did not feel they had the permission to bring personal judgement to bear.
"I myself have heard from victims directly when they have spoken of decision-making as a process, a process that ground people down, a process that lacked compassion towards the very people who should have been supported.
"I have heard people speaking of being dismissed as if they just did not matter and as if their voices were irrelevant.
"Putting people first will be built into the reforms that we make. Everyone making decisions must see a face behind the case."
Patel said: "What happened to the Windrush generation is unspeakable and no one with a legal right to be here should ever have been penalised."
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