What is the Windrush Scandal and how did it happen?
A report released on Wednesday examined how laws aimed at reducing the number of non-white people in Britain affected the Windrush generation and its descendants.
This issue reached a slow but climactic conclusion in 2017, when it was revealed government failures and the Home Office's "hostile environment" policy led to threats of deportation and detention for millions who had legally migrated to the UK.
Victims were deported to the Caribbean with little more than the clothes on their backs, leaving behind their lives and everything they had worked for.
Those who were affected began to lose access to housing, healthcare, bank accounts, and driving licences, with some being placed in detention centres.
Although the government eventually acknowledged its mistakes and established a compensation scheme, tragically, about 24 people who had been wrongfully deported died before the UK government could reach out to them.
So how did we get here?
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What is Windrush?
Windrush is the name of a boat that brought over people from the Caribbean who answered Britain’s call to help fill post-war workforce shortages.
The HMT Empire Windrush first docked in England on June 22, 1948 at Tilbury Docks in Essex.
What is the Windrush scandal?
In April 2018 it emerged some people, who migrated legally to the UK between the late 1940s and early 1970s, were being threatened with detention and deportation, despite having the right to live here.
They were also denied access to their housing, healthcare, bank accounts, and driving licences.
Many in the Windrush generation had no record of their legal status.
This meant they were challenged by the Home Office’s “hostile environment” policy, which was supposed to target illegal migrants.
It then emerged thousands of landing card slips, recording the arrival of Windrush-era immigrants were previously destroyed by the Home Office.
Officials were forced to defend a decision to destroy the paperwork.
The Home Office apologised, Amber Rudd lost her job as home secretary and Sajid Javid was drafted in, becoming the first person from an ethnic minority background to head the Home Office.
Whose fault was it and what should have happened next?
A 2020 report put the blame on the Home Office, it said the scandal was “foreseeable and avoidable” and victims were let down by “systemic operational failings” at the department.
Campaigner Patrick Vernon said the fallout should be referred to as the Home Office scandal rather than the Windrush scandal.
The author of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, Wendy Williams, described a “culture of disbelief and carelessness” at the department which she said was “born out of a conviction that the hostile environment policy ... should be pursued at all costs”.
Ms Williams made 30 recommendations including that Home Office ministers should admit serious harm was inflicted on people who are British.
She also said those affected from the wider black African-Caribbean community should receive an “unqualified apology”.
A long-awaited report also revealed that laws were enacted to decrease the number of people living in the UK "who did not have white skin".
The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal was released on Monday after the Home Office previously refused to publish it.
It said: "Major immigration legislation in 1962, 1968 and 1971 was designed to reduce the proportion of people living in the United Kingdom who did not have white skin."
"The Windrush Scandal was caused by a failure to recognise that changes in immigration and citizenship law in Britain since 1948 had affected black people in the UK differently than they had other racial and ethnic groups.
"As a result, the experiences of Britain’s black communities of the Home Office, of the law, and of life in the UK have been fundamentally different from those of white communities."
Other recommendations included commissioning a full review and evaluation of the hostile environment policy and that the Home Office should establish an overarching strategic race advisory board.
Did all 30 recommendations go through and why is Suella Braverman involved?
Ms Williams' recommendations were accepted, but then they weren’t.
All were originally given the green light by Priti Patel when she was home secretary.
But in January 2023, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman dropped three of the 30 recommendations, something Windrush campaigners called a “slap in the face”.
The three recommendations Suella Braverman dropped were:
Establish a migrants’ commissioner;
Increase powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration;
Hold reconciliation events.
Ms Braverman defended her move, telling ITV News on the eve of the Windrush 75th anniversary: “We are exposing ourselves to heightened and incredibly rigorous levels of scrutiny.
"We have an independent examiner of complaints, a body that’s been recently instituted, which is there to examine and provide checks and balances on our system.”
In June, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Guardian that the Labour Government would appoint a "Windrush commissioner" to oversee the compensation scheme and represent the voices of affected families and communities.
She emphasised the need to rebuild trust between Windrush victims, campaigners, and the Home Office.
Were the Windrush generation compensated for what happened?
There is a compensation scheme for those affected, which was set up under Theresa May when she was prime minister.
People of all ages and nationalities, who suffered due to being unable to prove their legal right to live in the UK can claim.
Victims need to submit a form and have evidence to support their application.
Compensation starts at a minimum of £10,000 and can go up to £100,000 or more.
Has it been successful?
The latest government figures show that as of January 2024, 7,862 claims have been made as of January 2024.
However, the scheme has faced criticism for being complex, too slow and inefficient.
A total of £80.1 million had been paid out by the end of the first month of this year for 2,233 claims - an average of nearly £35,900 per claim.
Some 4,847 claims had been fully closed by this time, of which just over half (52%) were found to have no entitlement to compensation, 36% were offered compensation, and the remaining 12% had their eligibility for a claim refused or withdrawn.
The Home Office said it remains “absolutely committed to righting the wrongs of the Windrush scandal” but recognised there is “more to do” when it comes to the compensation scheme.
The scheme was said to have been simplified.
Due to a lack of faith in the current system, there are calls to remove management of the compensation scheme from the Home Office and transfer it to an independent body.
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