The Windrush generation

Following public concern about the recent treatment that members of the "Windrush generation" who arrived in this country from the Caribbean many decades ago and had not sought the paperwork to prove their British status because they had not thought they needed to, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has apologised and taken a number of urgent steps to revolve the issue, which include the following:
  • A new taskforce dedicated to helping those affected 
  • Plans to work with departments across government to gather evidence on behalf of immigrants (documentation for every year is usually expected, such as bank statements or payslips)
  • A pledge that all cases will be resolved in two weeks
  • All fees for new documentation (normally £229) will be waived so people are not "out of pocket"
  • A new website will be set up with information and a direct contact point
The Prime Minister has agreed to meet Caribbean leaders who are in Britain for a Commonwealth meeting this week to discuss the issue.

I don't agree with everything else he wrote on the issue but Stephen Bush pointed out in the New Statesman that the next group of people who may hit a similar problem are the Ugandan Asians who Idi Amin expelled in the early 1970's. I hope the lessons are learned this time so that it can be handled better.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Then post-Brexit Europeans. If British citizens are being grated so badly I wouldn't like to be a European living in 21st century Britain.
11:47 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
We need to make sure that this unfortunate situation is not repeated for anyone else, be it the Windrush generation, migrants from Amin's Uganda, citizens of other EU countries or anyone else.
1:51 am
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