Snub to Windrush generation over UK rights betrayal
‘A stain on our conscience’
A Plea for talks at this week’s commonwealth summit about the betrayal of Britain’s Windrush generation of immigrants has been rejected.
leaders from caribbean countries wanted to discuss with theresa May the plight of those who have lost their everyday rights as Britons.
But they have been told there will be no formal meeting with the Prime Minister although Downing Street officials indicated there will be a chance to talk in the sidelines of the gathering.
Ministers are under pressure to end the ‘inhumane’ betrayal of migrants who came here with their parents after the Second World War and never became naturalised British citizens. tens of thousands who arrived as children from the caribbean are said to have been ‘treated like criminals’.
the commonwealth heads of government meeting is being held in london this week and Guy Hewitt, High commissioner for Barbados, told the Guardian: ‘ We did make a request to the summit team for a meeting to be held between the Prime Minister and the commonwealth caribbean heads of government, and regrettably they have advised us that that is not possible.’
in a growing scandal, children of the Windrush migrants, named after the ship which brought the first generation of workers to Britain from the West indies in 1948, have fallen victim to an immigration loophole that has left them in a legal limbo. Despite having lived here and paid taxes for decades, some have lost their homes, jobs and benefits, been denied Nhs treatment and threatened with deportation.
Anyone who arrived in the UK from a commonwealth country before 1971 was given indefinite leave to remain by that year’s immigration Act. But many never applied for a British passport.
tough new rules were introduced four years ago to weed out illegal immigrants and prevent them renting a home, working, opening a bank account and holding a driving licence. the rules require doc- umentary evidence of the right to be here. But many Windrush-era children do not have such proof.
Securing a residence permit requires sending the Home Office up to four pieces of documentary evidence for every year spent in the UK – an almost impossible task.
the Daily Mail has launched a campaign in support of the Windrush generation.
We are calling for a lower burden of proof for those who arrived here before 1971, and more flexibility shown to those who have lived here and paid taxes for several decades but were never naturalised.
research by academics at the Oxford University-based Migration Observatory suggests that up to 57,000 people who arrived in the UK before 1971 could be subject to such appalling treatment.
labour MP David lammy said that ‘what is going on is grotesque, immoral and in hu within mane’. the former minister, whose Guyanese parents were Windrush migrants, added: ‘it is a stain on our nation’s conscience and the Home Secretary and Prime Minister must act urgently to right this historic wrong.
‘After the Second World War we invited the Windrush generation over as citizens to help rebuild our country, and now their children are being treated like criminals.’
A petition is calling for anyone who came to the UK as a child between 1948 and 1971 to have their rights confirmed by the Government. the email address to add your name is www.petition.parliament.uk/ petitions/216539.
the Home Office said those affected ‘should take legal advice and submit the appropriate application with correct evidence’. A spokesman added that there was ‘no intention’ of making people leave who have the right to remain here.