Home Office agrees to scrap ‘racist’ visa application algorithm
The Home Office has agreed to scrap a decision-making algorithm used to decide visa applications following allegations that it contained “entrenched racism”.
The digital “streaming tool”, which has been used to determine the outcome of visa applications for everyone applying to enter the UK since 2015, will be suspended from Friday “pending a redesign of the process”, Priti Patel’s department said.
The decision comes ahead of a legal challenge over the Home Office’s use of the algorithm by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), in which the charity was to argue that it amounted to racial discrimination in a breach of the Equality Act 2010.
'Completely dehumanising': Nigel Farage describes group of children and adults landing in Kent as 'invasion'
Nigel Farage has been accused of trying to inflame anti-migrant tensions after claiming a small group of people on a beach amounted to a "shocking invasion on the Kent Coast".
The Brexit Party leader made the comments as he posted an unverified video on social media of half a dozen people, some children, getting out of a dingy on a beach.
But anti-racism campaigners and charities pointed out that the people in the video were entitled to claim asylum, and accused the former MEP of needlessly whipping up hostility.
"Farage's comment is completely dehumanising and designed to inflame tension against people in the most desperate situations," Minnie Rahman, public affairs and campaigns manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said.
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE OF BEACH LANDING BY MIGRANTS
Shocking invasion on the Kent Coast taken this morning. pic.twitter.com/iuzAF0Uxz4
The new face of race hate: Marching through London they claimed to be fighting bigotry but their leader revels in anti-Semitic abuse with chilling echoes of 1930s fascism
GUY ADAMS: The protesters in their stab vests and paramilitary-style fatigues belonged to a strange new organisation that calls itself the Forever Family Force. The only director - and the group's leader and founder - is a 28-year-old resident of Ilford, East London, called Khari McKenzie, pictured left. Some have dark berets, gloves and knee-high leather boots. A few carry walkie-talkies. At least one is wearing an IRA- style balaclava. In some ways the scene appears to echo the 1930s, inset, when Oswald Mosley's 'Blackshirts' took their ugly brand of fascism to working-class neighbourhoods of our capital city. But this was Brixton, last Saturday.
'Angry and annoyed' MP accuses Met of racial profiling after being pulled over in London
Labour MP Dawn Butler has told Sky News she believes she was the victim of racial profiling after the car she was in was stopped by police.
The former shadow equalities minister filmed the incident, which happened in the London borough of Hackney on Sunday afternoon.
She said police officers stopped her "black male friend" who was driving a "nice car" and questioned her while she was in the passenger seat.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
She said: "We were stopped because we're two black people driving in a nice car in Hackney.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
"I'm angry because I know it happens all the time every day. And people don't know why they've been stopped.
"There's one group of people that are disproportionately policed.
"I wasn't going to go online with this, but the female police officer inflamed the situation. I was getting annoyed and angry with the way she was treating me.
"It is tiring and exhausting and mentally draining if you're black and getting treated like that. Yes there are issues but deal with it in an equitable way, in an unbiased way, not in a racist way.
"If you're profiling cars because they're not from the area that's a ridiculous way to police. If you're stopping cars because of the make that's a ridiculous way to police. And if you're stopping cars because of the colour of the people inside them, that's racist."
The MP for Brent Central said she had been "stopped a number of times" by police since being elected as a member of parliament.
Sky News has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.
Writing on Twitter, Chief Superintendent Roy Smith said he had spoken to Ms Butler over the phone, adding that "she has given me a very balanced account of the incident".
"She was positive about one officer and gave feedback on others and the stop," he wrote.
"We are listening to those concerns and Dawn is quite entitled to raise them."
Last month Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida **** apologised to British sprinter Bianca Williams after the athlete and her partner were handcuffed during a stop and search.
Williams claimed officers racially profiled her and Ricardo dos Santos during the traffic stop in Maida Vale, west London, which saw the pair being separated from their three-month-old son.
The Met Police referred itself to the police watchdog over the incident.
'Angry and annoyed' MP accuses Met of racial profiling after being pulled over in London
Labour MP Dawn Butler has told Sky News she believes she was the victim of racial profiling after the car she was in was stopped by police.
The former shadow equalities minister filmed the incident, which happened in the London borough of Hackney on Sunday afternoon.
She said police officers stopped her "black male friend" who was driving a "nice car" and questioned her while she was in the passenger seat.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
She said: "We were stopped because we're two black people driving in a nice car in Hackney.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
"I'm angry because I know it happens all the time every day. And people don't know why they've been stopped.
"There's one group of people that are disproportionately policed.
"I wasn't going to go online with this, but the female police officer inflamed the situation. I was getting annoyed and angry with the way she was treating me.
"It is tiring and exhausting and mentally draining if you're black and getting treated like that. Yes there are issues but deal with it in an equitable way, in an unbiased way, not in a racist way.
"If you're profiling cars because they're not from the area that's a ridiculous way to police. If you're stopping cars because of the make that's a ridiculous way to police. And if you're stopping cars because of the colour of the people inside them, that's racist."
The MP for Brent Central said she had been "stopped a number of times" by police since being elected as a member of parliament.
Sky News has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.
Writing on Twitter, Chief Superintendent Roy Smith said he had spoken to Ms Butler over the phone, adding that "she has given me a very balanced account of the incident".
"She was positive about one officer and gave feedback on others and the stop," he wrote.
"We are listening to those concerns and Dawn is quite entitled to raise them."
Last month Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida **** apologised to British sprinter Bianca Williams after the athlete and her partner were handcuffed during a stop and search.
Williams claimed officers racially profiled her and Ricardo dos Santos during the traffic stop in Maida Vale, west London, which saw the pair being separated from their three-month-old son.
The Met Police referred itself to the police watchdog over the incident.
"The simple answer to this problem would be to only employ Police Officers that are able to correctly enter a car registration number."
Seems a little harsh. The fella keyed in a wrong digit.
The fact that the incorrect registration gave the owners address in North Yorkshire may have been a clue.
Police Officers are expected to deal with some very difficult situations, but what could be easier than reading off, or entering into a computer the registration of a car that you are following, while looking at the number plate.
If you are unable to do this correctly, what could you be trusted to do?
Also I think that The Police are on occasion the architects of their own downfall.
On the one hand they made the stop because they were investigating gang and knife crime.
On the other hand they made the stop because they came up with the car owners address in North Yorkshire.
What is the likelihood of someone living in North Yorkshire being involved with a London gang?
"The simple answer to this problem would be to only employ Police Officers that are able to correctly enter a car registration number."
Seems a little harsh. The fella keyed in a wrong digit.
The fact that the incorrect registration gave the owners address in North Yorkshire may have been a clue.
Police Officers are expected to deal with some very difficult situations, but what could be easier than reading off, or entering into a computer the registration of a car that you are following, while looking at the number plate.
If you are unable to do this correctly, what could you be trusted to do?
Also I think that The Police are on occasion the architects of their own downfall.
On the one hand they made the stop because they were investigating gang and knife crime.
On the other hand they made the stop because they came up with the car owners address in North Yorkshire.
What is the likelihood of someone living in North Yorkshire being involved with a London gang?
Keying in a registration number on a little keyboard whilst travelling in a car bumping along may well result in a keying error.
And if it comes up with a car registered in Yorkshire driving around in Hackney, yes, that's could well be suspicious.
There is systematic racism in the Met Police, no denying that, but Ms Butler seems to be making a meal of this when there is no need. She could not wait to tweet "I've been stopped by the police, I've filmed it all, full report coming" all seems a bit eager for confrontation to me.
"The simple answer to this problem would be to only employ Police Officers that are able to correctly enter a car registration number."
Seems a little harsh. The fella keyed in a wrong digit.
The fact that the incorrect registration gave the owners address in North Yorkshire may have been a clue.
Police Officers are expected to deal with some very difficult situations, but what could be easier than reading off, or entering into a computer the registration of a car that you are following, while looking at the number plate.
If you are unable to do this correctly, what could you be trusted to do?
Also I think that The Police are on occasion the architects of their own downfall.
On the one hand they made the stop because they were investigating gang and knife crime.
On the other hand they made the stop because they came up with the car owners address in North Yorkshire.
What is the likelihood of someone living in North Yorkshire being involved with a London gang?
Keying in a registration number on a little keyboard whilst travelling in a car bumping along may well result in a keying error.
True, but all the more reason for checking before entering.
And if it comes up with a car registered in Yorkshire driving around in Hackney, yes, that's could well be suspicious.
Another reason to check if the answer you come up with is suspicious. London is famous for tourists. Why would you profile cars that arent registered locally? You will surely get plenty of company cars driven by local people, but registered at head office hundreds of miles away, and loads of tourists. You would think that the overwhelming majority of local gang members would live locally, and not have company cars.
There is systematic racism in the Met Police, no denying that, but Ms Butler seems to be making a meal of this when there is no need. She could not wait to tweet "I've been stopped by the police, I've filmed it all, full report coming" all seems a bit eager for confrontation to me.
Her motives are obvious as she is a politician, but The Police played into her hands, yet again. Her criticism was quite calm, and she didnt rant as others have in the past. The Police explanation was flawed as usual. The female copper would have wound me up, but the fella seemed ok.
"The simple answer to this problem would be to only employ Police Officers that are able to correctly enter a car registration number."
Seems a little harsh. The fella keyed in a wrong digit.
The fact that the incorrect registration gave the owners address in North Yorkshire may have been a clue.
Police Officers are expected to deal with some very difficult situations, but what could be easier than reading off, or entering into a computer the registration of a car that you are following, while looking at the number plate.
If you are unable to do this correctly, what could you be trusted to do?
Also I think that The Police are on occasion the architects of their own downfall.
On the one hand they made the stop because they were investigating gang and knife crime.
On the other hand they made the stop because they came up with the car owners address in North Yorkshire.
What is the likelihood of someone living in North Yorkshire being involved with a London gang?
Keying in a registration number on a little keyboard whilst travelling in a car bumping along may well result in a keying error.
And if it comes up with a car registered in Yorkshire driving around in Hackney, yes, that's could well be suspicious.
There is systematic racism in the Met Police, no denying that, but Ms Butler seems to be making a meal of this when there is no need. She could not wait to tweet "I've been stopped by the police, I've filmed it all, full report coming" all seems a bit eager for confrontation to me.
This point exactly,if people whether they be black,white,yellow,brown,gay,straight,male,female,young,old etc were to just listen,cooperate & engage with the police when stopped for any reason,instead of the first reaction/response being to whip their phones out and start trying to be become social media's next Quentin Tarantino,then most of the resulting events would never occur.If you've done nothing wrong and got nothing to hide then engage with their enquiries,respond in a calm and peaceful manner and you'll soon be on your way.If they still persist with false/wrong/racist etc allegations,let them carry on oblige with their requests and then if you're still certain that you have been wronged,have your day in court,where you can then go full on Tarantino with the real media watching.The Police have got a hard enough job to do in these times we're living in,without their every move/decision being subjected to trial by Facebook by those seeking instant fame and social media attention to boost their own egos.
Never meant to click fold and clicked call instead? What else can’t you be trusted to do?! I’m not sure a world without mistakes is an attainable target.
I believe the keying error pulled back a different make and model, so without double checking the officer perhaps thought they were looking at fake plates - which is probably a fair reason for a stop.
I’d like to see officers publish the body cam footage when ‘victims’ post their accounts, particularly where they’ve had a go at editing and deciding to go FULL CAPS on Twitter.
Noted the black driver’s face is blurred out to protect his identity. No such courtesy for the officer.
Comments
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw8and1Geo6/1/6/section/1
The Home Office has agreed to scrap a decision-making algorithm used to decide visa applications following allegations that it contained “entrenched racism”.
The digital “streaming tool”, which has been used to determine the outcome of visa applications for everyone applying to enter the UK since 2015, will be suspended from Friday “pending a redesign of the process”, Priti Patel’s department said.
The decision comes ahead of a legal challenge over the Home Office’s use of the algorithm by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), in which the charity was to argue that it amounted to racial discrimination in a breach of the Equality Act 2010.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/home-office-agrees-to-scrap-racist-visa-application-algorithm/ar-BB17yU5Y?ocid=msedgdhp
Nigel Farage has been accused of trying to inflame anti-migrant tensions after claiming a small group of people on a beach amounted to a "shocking invasion on the Kent Coast".
The Brexit Party leader made the comments as he posted an unverified video on social media of half a dozen people, some children, getting out of a dingy on a beach.
But anti-racism campaigners and charities pointed out that the people in the video were entitled to claim asylum, and accused the former MEP of needlessly whipping up hostility.
"Farage's comment is completely dehumanising and designed to inflame tension against people in the most desperate situations," Minnie Rahman, public affairs and campaigns manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said.
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE OF BEACH LANDING BY MIGRANTS
Shocking invasion on the Kent Coast taken this morning. pic.twitter.com/iuzAF0Uxz4
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage)
August 6, 2020
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/completely-dehumanising-nigel-farage-describes-group-of-children-and-adults-landing-in-kent-as-invasion/ar-BB17Ee32?ocid=msedgdhp
GUY ADAMS: The protesters in their stab vests and paramilitary-style fatigues belonged to a strange new organisation that calls itself the Forever Family Force. The only director - and the group's leader and founder - is a 28-year-old resident of Ilford, East London, called Khari McKenzie, pictured left. Some have dark berets, gloves and knee-high leather boots. A few carry walkie-talkies. At least one is wearing an IRA- style balaclava. In some ways the scene appears to echo the 1930s, inset, when Oswald Mosley's 'Blackshirts' took their ugly brand of fascism to working-class neighbourhoods of our capital city. But this was Brixton, last Saturday.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
Labour MP Dawn Butler has told Sky News she believes she was the victim of racial profiling after the car she was in was stopped by police.
The former shadow equalities minister filmed the incident, which happened in the London borough of Hackney on Sunday afternoon.
She said police officers stopped her "black male friend" who was driving a "nice car" and questioned her while she was in the passenger seat.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
She said: "We were stopped because we're two black people driving in a nice car in Hackney.
In the footage recorded by Ms Butler, police officers said they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
Ms Butler told Sky News she was "angry and annoyed" by the incident, claiming the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
"I'm angry because I know it happens all the time every day. And people don't know why they've been stopped.
"There's one group of people that are disproportionately policed.
"I wasn't going to go online with this, but the female police officer inflamed the situation. I was getting annoyed and angry with the way she was treating me.
"It is tiring and exhausting and mentally draining if you're black and getting treated like that. Yes there are issues but deal with it in an equitable way, in an unbiased way, not in a racist way.
"If you're profiling cars because they're not from the area that's a ridiculous way to police. If you're stopping cars because of the make that's a ridiculous way to police. And if you're stopping cars because of the colour of the people inside them, that's racist."
The MP for Brent Central said she had been "stopped a number of times" by police since being elected as a member of parliament.
Sky News has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.
Writing on Twitter, Chief Superintendent Roy Smith said he had spoken to Ms Butler over the phone, adding that "she has given me a very balanced account of the incident".
"She was positive about one officer and gave feedback on others and the stop," he wrote.
"We are listening to those concerns and Dawn is quite entitled to raise them."
Last month Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida **** apologised to British sprinter Bianca Williams after the athlete and her partner were handcuffed during a stop and search.
Williams claimed officers racially profiled her and Ricardo dos Santos during the traffic stop in Maida Vale, west London, which saw the pair being separated from their three-month-old son.
The Met Police referred itself to the police watchdog over the incident.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/angry-and-annoyed-mp-accuses-met-of-racial-profiling-after-being-pulled-over-in-london/ar-BB17L8oQ?ocid=msedgdhp
"The simple answer to this problem would be to only employ Police Officers that are able to correctly enter a car registration number."
Seems a little harsh. The fella keyed in a wrong digit.
Police Officers are expected to deal with some very difficult situations, but what could be easier than reading off, or entering into a computer the registration of a car that you are following, while looking at the number plate.
If you are unable to do this correctly, what could you be trusted to do?
Also I think that The Police are on occasion the architects of their own downfall.
On the one hand they made the stop because they were investigating gang and knife crime.
On the other hand they made the stop because they came up with the car owners address in North Yorkshire.
What is the likelihood of someone living in North Yorkshire being involved with a London gang?
And if it comes up with a car registered in Yorkshire driving around in Hackney, yes, that's could well be suspicious.
There is systematic racism in the Met Police, no denying that, but Ms Butler seems to be making a meal of this when there is no need. She could not wait to tweet "I've been stopped by the police, I've filmed it all, full report coming" all seems a bit eager for confrontation to me.
Her criticism was quite calm, and she didnt rant as others have in the past.
The Police explanation was flawed as usual.
The female copper would have wound me up, but the fella seemed ok.
This point exactly,if people whether they be black,white,yellow,brown,gay,straight,male,female,young,old etc were to just listen,cooperate & engage with the police when stopped for any reason,instead of the first reaction/response being to whip their phones out and start trying to be become social media's next Quentin Tarantino,then most of the resulting events would never occur.If you've done nothing wrong and got nothing to hide then engage with their enquiries,respond in a calm and peaceful manner and you'll soon be on your way.If they still persist with false/wrong/racist etc allegations,let them carry on oblige with their requests and then if you're still certain that you have been wronged,have your day in court,where you can then go full on Tarantino with the real media watching.The Police have got a hard enough job to do in these times we're living in,without their every move/decision being subjected to trial by Facebook by those seeking instant fame and social media attention to boost their own egos.
Let's not look for trouble, it finds us all easily enough.
I believe the keying error pulled back a different make and model, so without double checking the officer perhaps thought they were looking at fake plates - which is probably a fair reason for a stop.
I’d like to see officers publish the body cam footage when ‘victims’ post their accounts, particularly where they’ve had a go at editing and deciding to go FULL CAPS on Twitter.
Noted the black driver’s face is blurred out to protect his identity. No such courtesy for the officer.