April 29, 2018

What Britain is doing to the Windrush Generation

located:	United Kingdom
editor:	Shira Jeczmien

Monikered the Windrush generation after a German troopship called HMT Empire Windrush, which in 1943, was the first of many ships that carried commonwealth immigrants from the Caribbean into Britain. Thousands travelled into the country for the next two decades and in 1971 a law passed which saw the granting of an indefinite leave to remain status to any full time U.K. residents already in the country.

Today however, we have witnessed the deplorable disregard of this policy under Amber Rudd’s Home Office, rooted in the hardening immigration policies put in place by Theresa May during her years as Home Office Secretary. The stories that have began surfacing in recent weeks have in fact been accumulating over years.

What came to light over the past few days, and solidified at the Houses of Parliament earlier this week is that during May's time in the office, original files that documented the arrival of the Windrush generation into Britain were destroyed. With that, records of thousands of people – individuals who have either entered the country on their parents or siblings’ passports – have been erased from record and from history. Meanwhile, under May’s tightening immigration policies, thousands found themselves in sudden need to prove their British citizenship in order to access basic national services such as healthcare, welfare, as well as renewing work contracts, tenancy agreements with private landlords and a range of other bodies. The goal was quite simple, to create such a hostile environment to immigrants that they would, essentially, self deport. In response, May and Rudd had previously argued that other forms of documentation, such as National Insurance would have sufficed, yet still, the Guardian reported that “Home Office staff members have been reluctant to consider alternative records unless they are presented within a dossier of papers proving residency every year for decades. People who have been classified as being in the UK illegally are often unable to put together the evidence, and cannot afford legal assistance.”

In a surprising apology and acknowledgement of the abusive treatment her government and party has supported, Amber Rudd said “Frankly, how they have been treated has been wrong – has been appalling – and I am sorry.” And that the Home Office had become too occupied with implementing “policy and strategy” that it in turn has “lost sight of the individual”. Rudd has announced she is underway to set up a new department within the office that will be specifically concerned with settling the issues around these documents and securing each and every one of those who have been affected will be helped with “a completely new approach to how their situation is regularised.”

There are currently an estimated 50,000 people who will be needing the services Rudd claims to provide – free of charge, as she felt necessary to note. And as promising as her apology and quick public solution seems, shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has expressed crucial scepticism which resonated louder. “How much confidence can people have in the special team when people with lawyers have been unable to resolve their situations?”

It’s crucial this scandal does not become overlooked after the media haze has passed, and that Rudd and May will be held accountable to their promises. But more than anything, for the sheer pain this has inflicted on thousands, in the words of Labour MP David Lamming, “this is a national day of shame.”