Theresa May has reassured Commonwealth leaders that members of the Windrush generation who had suffered “anxieties and problems” as a result of the government’s immigration rules would be paid compensation.
The prime minister said she had given Caribbean leaders an “absolute commitment” at a meeting earlier this week that “the UK will do whatever it takes including, where appropriate, payment of compensation, to resolve the anxieties and problems that some of the Windrush generation have suffered”.
She added: “These people are British. They are part of us; they helped to build Britain and we are all the stronger for their contributions.”
May was speaking at the closing press conference for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London, which has been overshadowed by the treatment of the Windrush generation.
She has been under intense pressure to provide more reassurance – and pay compensation – to the affected individuals, some of whom have lost homes and jobs and been threatened with deportation.
Who are the Windrush generation?
They are people who arrived in the UK after the second world war from Caribbean countries at the invitation of the British government. The first group arrived on the ship MV Empire Windrush in June 1948.
What happened to them?
An estimated 50,000 people faced the risk of deportation if they had never formalised their residency status and did not have the required documentation to prove it.
Why now?
It stems from a policy, set out by Theresa May when she was home secretary, to make the UK 'a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants'. It requires employers, NHS staff, private landlords and other bodies to demand evidence of people’s citizenship or immigration status.
Why do they not have the correct paperwork and status?
Some children, often travelling on their parents’ passports, were never formally naturalised and many moved to the UK before the countries in which they were born became independent, so they assumed they were British. In some cases, they did not apply for passports. The Home Office did not keep a record of people entering the country and granted leave to remain, which was conferred on anyone living continuously in the country since before 1 January 1973.
What did the government try and do to resolve the problem?
A Home Office team was set up to ensure Commonwealth-born long-term UK residents would no longer find themselves classified as being in the UK illegally. But a month after one minister promised the cases would be resolved within two weeks, many remained destitute. In November 2018 home secretary Sajid Javid revealed that at least 11 Britons who had been wrongly deported had died. In April 2019 the government agreed to pay up to £200m in compensation.
By the end of 2020, victims were describing the long waits and 'abysmal' payouts with the scheme, and the most senior black Home Office employee in the team responsible for the Windrush compensation scheme resigned, describing it as systemically racist and unfit for purpose.
The Labour MP David Lammy and the Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, are among those to have called for compensation.
Speaking to reporters after the press conference, the prime minister of Grenada, Keith Mitchell, said he believed May and the UK government should be doing more to address the situation.
“I think there’s no question,” he said. “Clearly it’s something which is vibrating strongly in the Caribbean region as a whole. Many of our people came here and helped to build Britain, under conditions that were set for them. For me, it’s very unfair for them to be treated in the way they have been treated.
“The word compensation came out today - that was highly significant, extremely important. It’s not just, ‘I’m sorry.’ People lost a lot, people suffered a lot of pain, and they must be given an opportunity to correct this – some serious compensation. If not the person, if they’ve gone, then the families who have suffered, too.”
Asked if May should accept her “hostile environment” immigration policy was a mistake, Mitchell praised the prime minister for pledging to address the crisis.
He said: “I think the fact she has addressed it is indicating that Britain and the policy they enunciated initially was not the right one. And therefore by making the statement she made today, I think she’s heading in the right direction. And I’ll give her credit for making the right turn.”
Reacting to May’s announcement, Sarah O’Connor, 57, who moved to Britain from Jamaica 51 years ago when she was six, and faced bankruptcy after she was unable to take up a new job last year because she had no papers, said she was interested to hear about compensation but mainly felt rage with the government at the emerging scandal.
“It makes me feel so angry that you have to go through all the anxiety, depression and feeling scared for it all to come to the surface,” she said. |People must have known in the Home Office that Windrush children were suffering and they pushed in under the table. I’m appalled.”
She said she had had no idea that other people were suffering in the same way that she was. “It’s good more people are standing up and saying this is what is happening to me. Before they were too scared to anything, now they are standing up for their rights.”
Judy Griffith, 63, who flew from Barbados in 1963 when she was nine, said she was sceptical of the government’s commitment to resolving this. “I am concerned it will end up like the Grenfell fire. The government is making promises which then get forgotten once the interest dies down, and the whole thing gets swept under the carpet.”
The promise of compensation came as it was revealed that the number of people who had contacted the Home Office’s helpline set up to offer support for members of the Windrush generation had risen to 232. The first four people whose cases have gone to a dedicated team of officials have been given permanent residence status.
Later, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, addressed a Windrush rally in Brixton, south London, telling them that the home secretary, Amber Rudd, and May, should not be apologising over the scandal. “You know why? Because you only apologise when you make a mistake,” she said. “They knew what they were doing.”
The government “knew the consequences of that hostile climate would affect black people, whether or not they had immigration issues”, Abbott said, adding that ministers “thought they could get away with it; they thought nobody would care”. She demanded to know how many people were being held in detention centres and how many had been removed from the country.
She said those in detention must be released and those who had been removed must be invited to come back – and be compensated by the government. “Think what it means: you are separated from your families and your friends, you are separated often from your healthcare treatment. You are humiliated. And they did not care that they were humiliating people who helped to rebuild this country after the second world war.”
