Payouts pledged to Windrush migration victims

THE 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 longstanding 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, said 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.

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. Some 286 people have so far contacted a Home Office helpline set up to offer support.