Windrush generation set for compensation

Pledge comes as two women say they were denied re-entry to the UK after travelling to the Caribbean

The UK Government is to make compensation payments to members of the Windrush generation who suffered as a result of official challenges to their migration status, Theresa May has announced.

Downing Street declined to give details of the compensation scheme, saying only they would be announced “shortly” by the Home Office.

It is thought likely that payments will go beyond the reimbursement of legal bills and include a recognition of the anxiety caused to long-standing Commonwealth residents of the UK whose right to be in the country was questioned.

The announcement came as details emerged of two Windrush women who say they were denied re-entry to the UK after travelling to the Caribbean.

Gretel Gocan, 81, told 5 News she had been stuck in Jamaica since 2010 unable to return to her south London home after taking a holiday to visit family.

And former NHS nurse Icilda Williams, who moved back to Jamaica in 1996 after 34 years in Bradford, said her annual visits to the UK to see her children had been halted since 2014 after she was denied a visa.

The Home Office said it would be looking into the cases as a matter of urgency.

Mrs May confirmed plans for compensation at a press conference at the conclusion of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in London which has been overshadowed by controversy over the treatment of Caribbean nationals who arrived in the UK between the late 1940s and early 1970s.

The prime minister said: “On Tuesday, I met with Caribbean leaders, where I gave an absolute commitment that the UK Government will do whatever it takes, including where appropriate payment of compensation, to resolve the anxieties and problems which some of the Windrush generation have suffered.

“These people are British, they are part of us, they helped to build Britain and we are all the stronger for their contributions.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded an apology from Mrs May for the policy she introduced as home secretary of creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants by requiring individuals to prove their right to be in the UK before receiving services.

“She’s the one that ordered the vans to go around telling immigrants to go home,” said Mr Corbyn.

“She’s the one that created that nasty atmosphere.

“She wanted to create this hostile atmosphere towards immigrants in this country.”

He continued: “I think it’s time that she apologised for that as well as for the events that have happened to the people of the Windrush generation.”

She’s the one that ordered the vans to go around telling immigrants to go home. JEREMY CORBYN

Picture: Getty. A demonstrator wears ‘black lives matter’ earrings during a protest in support of the Windrush generation in Windrush Square, Brixton, yesterday.