LEARNING FROM THE PAST
A Historical Weekend (Part 2)
(Today is June 28th, 2020)
Last weekend had 3 special dates, that were/are new to me:
- 6/19 was Juneteenth (US, since 1865)
- 6/21 was National Indigenous Peoples Day (Canada, since 1996)
- 6/22 was Windrush Day (UK, since 2018)
Previously I covered Juneteenth here. Today I would like to cover the Windrush Scandal.
A few weeks ago I heard about the Windrush Scandal from a Jamaican-born friend. As a British citizen, finding out about this story was a sad surprise.
How it Started
Post-World War 2, Great Britain was in need of rebuilding, and looked to the far corners of her Empire for help. Much like the famous rebuilding of post-war Japan, I was aware of the incredible transformation that took place in the post-war UK. But I didn’t know the human cost.
In high school we covered history, but we didn’t learn about British colonies around the world, or anything about the Commonwealth. Last weekend was a wake-up call to go and learn some history. If I was new to all of this, I can bet there are many people around the world who are also new to this. So let’s learn together.
The People
The Windrush story refers to the almost 800 people who moved from the Caribbean region to the UK on board the Empire Windrush in 1948, when it sailed from Jamaica, as well as subsequent generations (those who arriving from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971), which are known as the “Windrush generation”.
Up to 1970, it was estimated that 500,000 people moved from the Commonwealth colonies to the UK, with a significant proportion coming from the Caribbean:
The first Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom faced extreme intolerance from the white population. And while at first the government had actively invited them to come to the UK to work, many were denied jobs, accommodation, entry to pubs, clubs, churches, and more, because of the colour of their skin.
Proof of Status
As citizens of former colonies, they were all entitled to the same legal protections as citizens born in the UK, but did not have access to any paperwork to prove those rights.
Several children were also onboard the Windrush in 1948, moving with their parents. Many of those who arrived as children had actually travelled on their parents’ passports (this is no longer possible in a post-9/11 world), and had never applied for their own travel documents. In turn, those parents and other adults who had landed in the UK, simply showed their Commonwealth passports and were permitted to stay.
At the time, citizenship was extended to people from British colonies (typically referred to as the Commonwealth), so they were able to move to the UK legally and worked in tough and busy industries (steel, coal, public transport, the NHS…).
However they were not welcomed by politicians, and their arrival in the UK, although contributing to the growth of a newly multi-racial Britain, also led to the first immigration laws for commonwealth citizens in 1962.
Further laws reducing their rights followed in 1968, and again in 1971.With the 1971 Immigration Act being passed, the rights of Commonwealth citizens already living in the UK were altered, to provide for a British version of Permanent Residence, the “indefinite leave to remain”.
Hostile Money-maker
The scandal fully came to light in 2018, after almost 6 years of pain and strife for the people affected, thanks to some dedicated reporting by journalists, primarily starting with The Guardian.
The origins of the scandal were a 2012 update to immigration legislation by the Conservative Government, called the Hostile Environment Policy.
They were a series of measures to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain (the British version of Permanent Residence), with the hope that because the situation was so tough, they would chose to emigrate form the UK, or return to where they came from, voluntarily.
However, at the Home Office (the UK version of the State Department), they had not keep records of those originally granted leave to remain in the 1970’s, and did not issue any paperwork confirming it.
It also emerged that the government had actually set a target for enforced deportations; their goal was to send back over 8500 people, to countries most had left as toddlers or babies.
What was the government’s plan?
- A more complicated application process for leave to remain was introduced
- The cost of the application fees increased higher than before (before 2003 was free | 2011 £840 | 2012 £972 | 2017 £2297)
- Social pressure was applied, as landlords, employers, the health service (NHS), charities, community groups, and banks were forced to carry out ID (passport) checks, and to refuse services if the customer/tenant/patient was unable to prove their legal status
- Penalties and fines were also levied against landlords, employers and other related parties, of up to £10k (US$12k) if they did not follow the government rules and carry out the ID/passport checks
The BBC reported that the Home Office made a profit of more than £800m (US$1bn) from nationality services between 2011 and 2017
Impact
Apart from the money-making side, from approximately 2013, several long-term UK residents were refused re-entry, a large number were threatened with immediate deportation, and some were actually deported.
As well as those deported, several were detained, lost jobs, homes, driving licenses, or were denied their rightful benefits, and in some cases, were denied medical care. Here are some of their stories:
Because the immigrants had moved from British colonies (that were not yet independent), they believed they were British citizens. But they were not able to prove it.
Their last recourse was the landing cards that belonged to the Windrush migrants, from their original arrivals in the UK.
But in 2010, those were destroyed by the Home Office. This removed the last potential source of evidence to prove that they were legally resident in the UK, making it extremely difficult for Windrush-era immigrants to prove their legal status when they started to have issues around their immigration status in the late 2000's.
Red Alert
The Home Office actually received warnings from as early as 2013 about the ill-treatment of the affected Windrush-generation citizens, from refugee and migrant support centres, caseworkers, local MPs, and even Caribbean leaders (who had discussed the deportations at Commonwealth meetings in 2013 and again in 2016 with the UK Foreign Secretary).
Press reports started to emerge in 2017, with stories saying that the British government wanted to deport people from Commonwealth territories who had arrived in the UK before 1973, if they could not prove their right to remain in the UK.
The Hostile Environment Policy was implemented in a cruel way, assuming people were guilty, and forcing them to prove their innocence of being illegal immigrants. The number of deportations, per the policy, was actually a set target.
By this time, many of the Windrush Generation had become elderly, and had great difficulty to find all the paperwork to prove their cases. Additionally, their descendants, now grown adults were also threatened with deportation or had their rights removed because they were unable to prove that their parents were legally in the UK when they were born.
As the trouble continued, several of the Windrush generation, primarily Black Caribbean-born Brits, were deported. This led the leaders of 12 Caribbean countries to formally request a meeting with the British Prime Minister in April 2018, before the Commonwealth Head of Government meeting to discuss the issue. The request was rejected.
Following repeated reporting by The Guardian, the BBC and other news outlets taking up the story, a lot of public pressure was put on the British Government, who quickly changed their stance and accepted the meeting. However, while they were reacting to the outside pressure, they were still slow to act, even voting down proposals to open up the Home Office records related to the Windrush Generation.
Action Taken, At-last
Still within April 2018, due to the sustained pressure, things finally started to change.
- Deportations were immediately halted, for almost 1 year
- Application fees were abolished for the Windrush Generation (Apr 23)
- The deportation targets were scrapped immediately (Apr 26)
- The Home Secretary resigned (Apr 30)
- Parliamentary investigations were undertaken which found “Immigration officials detained members of the Windrush generation “unlawfully and inappropriately” despite their right to be in the UK” (May 18, June 29), including live testimony from those affected:
- Promises were made by the new Home Secretary to make changes to immigration policy (Jun 3)
- Details of incentive bonuses for immigration officers, and wrongful deportation compensation payments to almost 1000 people wrongly deported between 2012–2017 emerged (Jun 28)
- Calls to reform the Home Office were made in parliament (Jul 3)
- The government made a formal apology to (just) 18 wrongly deported people (Aug 21)
- Further reports of “failure to protect the rights of legal immigrants to live, work and access services” emerged (Dec).
- A hardship fund was established (Dec), but it was almost impossible to access the funding (Feb 2019)
- Deportations restarted (Feb 2019)
- A full report was produced for Parliament with recommended Home Office changes (Mar 2020)
Closing Thoughts / Further Reading
At this time, the scandal has not yet been properly closed. Some wrongly-deported Windrush migrants were able to return to the UK, others listed for deportation were able to get citizenship (5900), or legal papers (6100). Others (1275) had received compensation (Mar 2020, £363k), with the government expecting up to 15,000 claims between 2020–2023, up to a maximum of £200m.
The current Home Secretary has promised to make the recommended changes (Jun 2020).
But some of the wrongly-deported died in the countries they were sent to, some people ruled to be illegal immigrants lost their jobs and homes, becoming homeless, and others are still in limbo. To me, the scandal continues until everyone has been made whole. I wonder how long it will take for this issue to be fully resolved..?
- A BBC drama, Sitting in Limbo, was made featuring the story of one Windrush Generation man affected by the scandal, Anthony Bryan:
- The BBC has several video interviews with Windrush Generation members
- Watch the Channel 4 documentary Windrush Generation:
- Visit The Guardian’s Windrush archive
I previously wrote about Juneteenth, and will be writing a follow-on article about National Indigenous People’s Day (Canada). I also wrote about my experiences as an “invisible immigrant” in Japan.
About Me
Hello, I am Garry. Nice to meet you. I grew up in Scotland, was educated in Scotland, the USA, and Japan, and then after 15yrs living in Japan, I moved to Canada in late 2019.
Since I arrived in Toronto, I have been learning a lot from friends, mentors and advisors, as I begin my new life here in Canada. I have a series of articles about that here. And here is my LinkedIn profile.
As a newcomer to North America, I have been seeing what has happened (especially in the USA) close-up. I was moved to write about some of these things by friends who encouraged me to learn about issues which I had not previously known about. I hope that as I educate myself, I can also share those learnings, and spread awareness to help deliver equality.
Thank you for listening. Let’s work to make tomorrow better than today.
