Windrush scandal

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The HMT Empire Windrush brought the first immigrants to Britain, and this generation is named after her

The Windrush scandal is a political affair in the UK that was published in the Guardian newspaper in April 2018 by journalist Amelia Gentlemanwas triggered. It revealed that thousands of citizens from former British colonies who had lived in Britain for decades were considered illegal immigrants because of conservative immigration policies. Due to the fault of the authorities, they had been left without valid residence permits and therefore could not prove that they were living legally in the UK. As immigration laws continued to tighten, thousands of them lost their jobs and homes, and some of them were deported even though they had lived in Britain for over 50 years and felt like British citizens.

2019 was fund Windrush Compensation Scheme established, the compensation is to pay out to those affected. By September 2021, of an estimated 15,000 potential beneficiaries, only fewer than 900 had received compensation. Critics pointed out that the fund was owned by the Ministry of the Interior, which was responsible for the problems of the allegedly illegal immigrants. In addition, the applicants would be treated disrespectfully and the authorities employees behaved in a racist manner towards them . Experts called for the fund to be administered by a non-governmental organization in the future.

background

Between 1948 and 1971, the University of Oxford estimates that around 500,000 people came to the United Kingdom from Commonwealth countries , including thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean . They are called "Windrush Generation" after the name of the ship HMT Empire Windrush , which brought the first immigrants from Jamaica , Trinidad , Tobago and other Caribbean islands across the Atlantic: 492 passengers, including many children on their parents' passport, arrived on 22 June 1948 on this ship at Tilbury , Essex . Over 200 men who had arrived by ship were initially housed in tunnels below the Clapham South underground station , where they lived like in a " rabbit hole ". During the war, the tunnels were used as protective bunkers.

Under Home Secretary Theresa May (here in 2013), the immigration laws were tightened in 2012 in the UK, making the Windrush scandal caused

Because of the labor shortage in Britain, many immigrants had been recruited to participate in post- WWII reconstruction . At that time, their home countries were still British colonies , so the immigrants were henceforth considered British citizens on the basis of the British Nationality Act 1948 . The influx ended with the "Immigration Act" of 1971, which restricted the right to relocate from the former colonies to Great Britain. Thereafter, a UK foreign born passport holder could only settle in the UK with a work permit and proof that a parent or grandparent was born in the UK. However, Commonwealth citizens who already lived in the UK were granted permanent residence permits. However, the Home Office in London did not issue them with appropriate papers.

In 2012, the regulations for migrants were tightened further under the then Interior Minister and later Prime Minister Theresa May . "The aim is to create a really hostile climate for illegal migrants here in Great Britain," the British media repeatedly quote a statement by May in Parliament. Life was made so difficult for illegal immigrants that they left the country of their own accord: For example, in order to rent apartments, use the National Health Service or get a job, valid residence papers have to be presented since then. Employers and landlords who violate the new regulations face fines of up to £ 10,000 . May's Home Office also specifically encouraged the British to report neighbors believed to be in Britain illegally.

The members of the "Windrush Generation", now often children of the original immigrants, had no valid papers on their residence status, so that they could not prove that they were living legally in Great Britain; this also affected people who came from earlier African colonies such as Ghana or Nigeria . In addition, in 2010 the Ministry of the Interior had the “arrival cards” of the “Windrush generation” destroyed, despite warnings from immigration officials that they would still be needed. The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act explicitly exempted Commonwealth citizens who had lived in Great Britain for many years from forced deportations. However, this provision was not incorporated into a new immigration law in 2014 because Commonwealth citizens who lived in the UK before January 1, 1973 were "adequately protected from deportation" according to a Home Office spokesman.

The scandal

In 2018, retiree Paulette Wilson contacted the Guardian newspaper . She was born in Jamaica, had lived in Great Britain for over 50 years and had worked, among other things, as a cook in the House of Commons . Now she was classified as illegal and for a week in a detention center (detention center) detained, and received notice of deportation to Jamaica. After the Guardian reported on their case, other people came forward who immigrated from the Commonwealth around 50 years ago or were descendants of such immigrants and were now facing similar problems. It turned out to be in the thousands. 164 of them had been arrested and many deported, often to countries they had never been to. Others lost their jobs, their pensions, their bank accounts, their health insurance and they were denied social benefits and re-entry after a trip abroad; some became homeless .

Journalist Amelia Gentleman, wife of government member Jo Johnson and sister-in-law of future Prime Minister Boris Johnson , published what became known as the "Windrush scandal" in April 2018 in the Guardian . Gentleman was convinced that the British government wanted to get rid of the immigrants “by all means”: “The Windrush scandal was not a mistake. It was the direct consequence of a series of tough policies designed to reduce immigration by kicking people out of Britain and making life hell for those who were undocumented. Conservative ministers would like us to remember this scandal as an unfortunate bureaucratic mistake [...]. But that was a well thought-out strategy. "

Interior Minister Amber Rudd resigned from office in 2018 in the wake of the scandal

At the same time as the publication of Gentleman's first article in the Guardian on the subject, the Commonwealth Summit took place in London , at which the heads of state of the Commonwealth met. They expressed outrage, whereupon Prime Minister Theresa May apologized for the fact that immigrants from these countries had been treated as illegals. May's successor as Home Secretary and close confidante, Amber Rudd , was forced to resign about two weeks after Gentleman's articles were published because she had provided inaccurate information on the matter before a committee of the House of Commons . Labor MPs pointed out that Rudd had to pay for what “got” May: She was the real “architect of the crisis”.

Rudd's successor was Sajid Javid , whose family had immigrated from Pakistan in the 1960s: "I thought: That could have affected my father, my mother, my uncle and me too." A task force was set up which already has a few weeks later more than 7,000 potentially affected people had reported.

Even after the disclosure of the scandal relatives of continued Windrush generation , "dangerous foreign criminals", deported, according to the authorities, despite massive protests from the UK, so 29 people in February 2019 and another in February 2020 28. The nunmehrige Interior Minister Priti Patel was in Parliament that these are convicted criminals. Since they had already served their sentences - not a few of them for minor offenses - critical observers saw them as "doubly damned". Although not all people could be deported as planned due to court decisions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson emphasized that the deportations were justified and should continue.

The consequences

The conservative government under May promised " transparency " in the investigation in 2018 , but refused to publish the relevant correspondence with the authorities since 2010, as demanded by Labor MPs. In March 2019, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a bipartisan parliamentary committee, presented a report , in which the behavior of the Ministry of the Interior was sharply criticized. The ministry has shown itself to be "self-righteous" in its response to the Windrush cases and does not feel responsible for solving the problems caused by its own mistakes. The report stressed that the Ministry of the Interior was aware of this through inquiries from citizens and MPs before the publications in the media. However, it did not respond and in doing so did not fulfill its duty to protect the people of the UK. Patrick Vernon, a social activist of Jamaican origin, wrote in 2019: "The report [...] once again reveals a failure by the Home Office and the systematically bad treatment of the Windrush generation and their families." and about " institutionalized racism ". Journalist Funmi Olutoye in The Independent called for the British-Caribbean and British-African communities, which traditionally despise each other, to move closer together because of a common enemy outside the groups.

In 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme was set up, which is based at the Ministry of the Interior. An estimated 15,000 people are entitled to compensation, but by September 2021 only 864 (around five percent) of them had received it. In July 2021, parliament called for the compensation authority to be separated from the Ministry of the Interior (“like leaving a fox responsible for a chicken coop”) because the applications were too complicated, the compensation paid too slowly and underestimated. An investigation found that at least 83 people who had arrived in the UK before 1973 had been deported as alleged illegals. Some members of the Windrush generation had voluntarily returned to their countries of origin due to the prevailing pressure, whereupon their pensions were cut or frozen. "This and the decades of immigration legislation that specifically aimed to reduce the non-white immigration from the Commonwealth, destroyed the lives of many black and ethnic minorities belong Direction British" which ruled Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (Joint Council for the Welfare of immigrants) .

In November 2021, the non-governmental organization Justice published a report by Robert Thomas, Professor of Public Law at the University of Manchester , with 27 recommendations for action for processing the applications under the Windrush Compensation Scheme . It was the fourth investigation report on the Windrush complex since 2018. Thomas' first recommendation was to hand over the implementation of the compensation payments to a non-governmental agency, also because the members of the Windrush generation had lost confidence in the government. The lawyer Alexandra Ankrah, former president of the Windrush Compensation Policy (Windrush's compensation program) , criticized the fact that the applicants were not treated with respect and there is clear evidence of racism among government employees.

Remembrance and remembrance

Since 2018, National Windrush Day has been celebrated annually on June 22nd - the day on which the Windrush reached Great Britain . On Windrush Day 2020, the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, sent a video message emphasizing that the land owed the Windrush generation gratitude for their contribution to the "rich diversity" of modern British society.

In September 2021, a sculpture by the sculptor Veronica Ryan was inaugurated in honor of the Windrush generation in Hackney , which depicts oversized Caribbean fruits. A second monument to the Windrush generation by Thomas J. Price is due to be unveiled on National Windrush Day 2022. In November 2021 acquired Tate Gallery , the mural Remain, Thriving (Stay, prosperity) the artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, originally at the metro station Brixton was seen and karibischstämmige family shows with more members.

In 2018, Amelia Gentleman and Carole Cadwalladr were named "Journalist of the Year" by the Political Studies Association and received a British Journalism Award . In 2019 she published the book The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment , for which she received the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism. The BBC produced the film Sitting In Limbo , which tells the true story of an immigrant who was imprisoned in Great Britain after 50 years and was about to be sent back to Jamaica.

The play The Betrayal , based on the book by Amelia Gentleman, premiered in November 2021 at the Union Theater in London .

literature

  • Amelia Gentleman: The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment . Guardian Faber Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-1-78335-184-8 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Windrush generation: Who are they and why are they facing problems? BBC, July 31, 2020, accessed November 18, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b c Samira Shackle: The Windrush scandal casts shadows on British immigration policy. Deutsche Welle , April 21, 2018, accessed on November 18, 2021 .
  3. ↑ Erica Buist: Incredible images show London Underground tunnels where Windrush arrivals lived. In: mylondon.news. November 28, 2021, accessed November 29, 2021 .
  4. ↑ Stefanie bolts: Interior Minister Amber Rudd & Windrush: Right bitter for Theresa May. In: welt.de . April 30, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  5. ↑ Windrush scandal explained. In: jcwi.org.uk. Retrieved November 19, 2021 .
  6. ↑ Britain's immigration system 'too open to error', MPs warn. In: independent.co.uk. December 23, 2019, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  7. ↑ a b Amelia Gentleman - "The Windrush Treason". In: deutschlandfunk.de. June 22, 2019, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  8. ↑ Amelia Gentleman: Home Office destroyed Windrush landing cards, says ex-staffer. In: theguardian.com. May 25, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  9. ↑ Diane Taylor: UK removed legal protection for Windrush immigrants in 2014. In: theguardian.com. April 17, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  10. ↑ Robert Rotifer: Day of Shame: Britain's Betrayal of the Windrush Children. In: Radio FM4. April 7, 2018, accessed November 18, 2021 .
  11. ^ RPT-Trouble in the family: UK's migrant embarrassment undermines Commonwealth reunion. In: reuters.com. April 20, 2018, accessed November 21, 2021 .
  12. ↑ Nando Sigano: Amber Rudd, the Windrush scandal and the reluctant remainer. In: opendemocracy.net. May 3, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  13. ↑ aar / Reuters / dpa / AP: Amber Rudd resigned after the immigrant scandal. In: The mirror . April 30, 2018, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  14. ↑ Edward Malnick: Sajid Javid's Windrush fury: 'It could have been me, my mum or my dad.' In: The Telegraph . April 29, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  15. ^ A b Greg Heffer: Government reveals 3,000 Windrush cases amid fiery Commons debate. In: news.sky.com. September 25, 2018, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  16. ↑ Helen O'Nions: No Place Called Home. The Banishment of 'Foreign Criminals' in the Public Interest: A Wrong without Redress . In: Laws . tape 9.26 , November 17, 2020, p. 2 .
  17. ↑ Boris Johnson says deportation of dozens of Caribbean nationals must go ahead. In: independent.co.uk. February 5, 2020, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  18. ^ "Windrush Woes" ​​as British House of Commons Public Accounts Committee severly criticizes Home Office for its handling of the Windrush Scancal. In: jamaicaglobalonline.com. March 6, 2019, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  19. ↑ Funmi Olutoye: 'Ironically enough, the Windrush scandal has brought the African and Caribbean communities together for the first time'. In: independent.co.uk. April 27, 2018, accessed November 21, 2021 .
  20. ^ Investigation into the Windrush Compensation Scheme - National Audit Office (NAO) Report. In: nao.org.uk. May 27, 2021, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  21. ^ A b c Scottish Legal News: Justice raises serious concerns over Windrush compensation scheme. In: scottishlegal.com. November 15, 2021, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  22. ↑ a b Amelia Gentleman: Remove Windrush payout scheme from Home Office, urges Labor. In: theguardian.com. July 2, 2021, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  23. ↑ Windrush scandal explained. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  24. ↑ Jamie Grierson: Windrush compensation scheme has 'concerning weaknesses', says charity. In: theguardian.com. November 15, 2021, accessed November 21, 2021 .
  25. ↑ Nicholas Reed Langen: Is it any wonder the Windrush generation don't trust the Home Office? In: thejusticegap.com. November 19, 2021, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  26. ↑ Britain owes 'debt of gratitude' to Windrush generation, says Prince Charles. In: news.sky.com. June 22, 2020, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  27. ↑ Aamna Mohdin: Fruit sculptures generation in Hackney honor Windrush. In: theguardian.com. October 1, 2021, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  28. ^ Robert Dex: Windrush mural at Brixton Tube station to star in Tate show. In: standard.co.uk. November 29, 2021, accessed November 30, 2021 .
  29. ↑ Kevin Rawlinson: Amelia Gentleman and Carole Cadwalladr win joint journalist of the year award. In: theguardian.com. November 28, 2018, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  30. ↑ Kevin Rawlinson: Guardian's Amelia Gentleman named journalist of the year. In: theguardian.com. December 11, 2018, accessed November 20, 2021 .
  31. ^ Guardian's Amelia Gentleman wins Paul Foot award. In: inpublishing.co.uk. October 3, 2019, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  32. ↑ Sitting In Limbo: Brother turns Windrush scandal into a very personal TV drama. In: bbc.com. June 5, 2020, accessed November 19, 2021 .
  33. ↑ Darell J Philip / Gleaner Writer: 'Windrush - The Betrayal' hailed as triumphant. In: jamaica-gleaner.com. November 20, 2021, accessed November 20, 2021 .