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This was to be a summer of firsts – flying, drive-in movies, outdoor pools … But because I’d taken “place of birth” literally when filling in my landing card, I’d listed the hospital instead of the town, and on arrival at Toronto airport I was ushered into a room for further processing.

At the airport, a Polisario representative handed me a landing card, in Arabic, Spanish, and English, welcoming me to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

However, further whistleblowers immediately contacted the Guardian to say Home Office staff had “routinely” used landing card information as part of their decision-making process, and to detail the emergence of a “gotcha” attitude among some staff, who enjoyed catching applicants out.

A former Home Office employee has told The Guardian that thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants' arrival dates in the UK were destroyed in 2010 during an office move.

The former Home Office employee, who worked in a team of around 50 in the data protection unit, said staff had wanted to offer the landing card files to public archives, but were told there was no interest.