It is shaming for citizens of a country which prides itself on its humanitarian values to read Amelia Gentleman’s report on people who arrived here decades ago as children, worked conscientiously throughout their lives, and are now classed by the Home Office as illegal immigrants (‘I’ve been here 50 years, worked night and day. No one wants to help me’, G2, 22 February). Might the supreme court judgment in favour of John Worboys’ victims offer some hope? If anything could be classed as inhuman or degrading treatment under article 3 of the European convention on human rights, surely it is these cases. No wonder our prime minister – and former home secretary – wants the country out of the convention.

Roger Downie

Glasgow

• Your article about the “brutal immigration climate” reminded me of what happened to my father. He was born in what was Calcutta in 1927 to a British couple, the youngest of four. He and his siblings were all brought to the UK as toddlers and left to be brought up in South Wales by their maternal grandparents. In 1970 he applied for a British passport, having never travelled abroad since his arrival, at which point all hell broke loose as the Home Office had no record of his entry into the UK. He had to provide no end of documentation to prove his right to a British passport. My father was furious for, as he pointed out, no one seemed too worried about his status when he had to do his national service. His eldest brother, by now a judge, was equally put out, having spent the whole of the war fighting in Europe (soldiers didn’t require passports). However, both were eventually granted British passports. A cynic might say that it helped that they were white, university-educated professionals.

Su Coates

Lower Rudge, Somerset

• I’m embarrassed to admit being naive even though I’m nearing 70. There’s me thinking how barbaric it is for the US to forcefully repatriate illegal immigrants, despite the fact they had forged productive lives and raised children (legal American citizens) over several decades – all this chiefly due to Trump’s policies. Now I am astonished to read our Home Office is executing similar antisocial acts against “retirement age” Caribbean citizens, who have also spent most of their adult life in the UK. I think it’s time to re-release the film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – but as a documentary this time around; it will be a blockbuster.

Paul Garrod

Portsmouth

• The appalling treatment of Commonwealth citizens who arrived here as children, and have contributed to the UK all of their lives, suggests that the UK should no longer hold the post of “head of the Commonwealth”. Perhaps it is time to expel the UK from the Commonwealth in the light of its inexcusable, inhumane treatment of the children of parents who were encouraged to come to the UK as convenient labour – and whose children are now treated as though they are past their usefulness.

Helen Rawden

Crowland, Lincolnshire

• Maybe the people threatened with deportation referred to in Amelia Gentleman’s article should have their national insurance contributions reimbursed, and maybe HMRC should be investigated for taking money under false pretences.

Tom Uprichard

London

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