Nearly eight decades after HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Britain, thousands of victims and their families are still awaiting justice.
As the UK marks Windrush Day and the 78th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s arrival at Tilbury Docks, campaigners will gather outside the gates of Downing Street to demand ministers honour promises made to those affected by the scandal. They are set to hand in a joint petition with 38 Degrees calling for an independent authority, free legal support, a public inquiry and automatic citizenship for survivors.
The petition, backed by more than 41,000 people, was launched after survivors teamed up with Grenfell United, Hillsborough Justice families and several other civil rights organisations to demand the Government “radically overhaul” the Windrush Compensation Scheme, as a recent NAO report found that only one in three claims received a payout.
View 4 ImagesFor Ms Hamilton, the ripple effects of the scandal became impossible to ignore in 2009 when she applied for her first British passport ahead of a girls’ holiday.
(Image: In Pictures via Getty Images)
Colin McFarlane, CEO at Justice 4 Windrush said: “Every claimant deserves fair treatment, access to independent legal support, and a compensation system they can trust. The Home Office scandal is sadly very far from being over.”
The effects of the scandal continue to be felt, not only by members of the Windrush generation, but by their children and wider families. One woman, Ms Hamilton, from the West Midlands, said her family’s experience showed how the scandal affected those born in the UK too. She said: “A lot of people don’t understand how it affects the children who are born in the UK.”
Ms Hamilton’s mother arrived in Britain from Jamaica at around the age of 12 and later settled in the UK. She began working at 16 after receiving her National Insurance number and didn’t encounter problems for years.
But around 2006, the same documents she had always used to prove her right to work were suddenly no longer accepted. The of the responsibility for trying to resolve her mother’s status fell on her shoulders.
Speaking about her mother’s fears, she said: “My mum was very nervous about the process for British Citizenship because she doesn’t retain information very well. In 1995 she had a brain aneurysm; she felt like that would have put her at a deficit.”
For Ms Hamilton, the ripple effects of the scandal became impossible to ignore in 2009 when she applied for her first British passport ahead of a girls’ holiday. Born in the UK to a British father, she said she never imagined she would encounter problems obtaining a passport.
Instead of receiving confirmation that her passport was being processed, she was told to contact the Home Office. She said: “I was kind of frustrated because I’d spent quite a lot of money on this holiday on kind of the assumption that I should get a British passport.”
View 4 ImagesFamilies are scared to share their identity due to consequences that may follow(Image: PA)
Describing the impact the revelation had on her sense of identity, she said: “You basically said ‘you are not a British citizen’, so who am I then? As much as I’m proud of my Jamaican heritage, I can’t say I’m Jamaican because at that point, I hadn’t even been.”
Speaking about the fear that followed, Ms Hamilton said: “I didn’t feel comfortable in expressing it to anybody around us, who worked in an institution of any sort because there’s the risk factor that if that information gets into the wrong hands people can simply make a report and then we’re going to have immigration at our door.”
She added: “For quite some years I actually suffered with depression for it and if I’m brutally honest I’m actually still very angry about it.”
Ms Hamilton said her frustrations with the compensation scheme deepened when her mother, who was directly affected by the scandal, received a lower payment than she did. She said: “My mum ended up getting substantially lower than I got which made no sense.”
Ms Hamilton’s experience is not isolated. One man, who asked to remain anonymous and is of Pakistani heritage, said he did not initially realise his family could be affected by the Windrush scandal because he believed it only impacted people from the Caribbean.
He said: “Honestly, I was shocked that Pakistani people were even included in the Windrush scheme. I mean, I thought the Windrush was a ship from the Caribbean.”
After his father died, the family discovered his mother had never been recognised as a British citizen, despite spending more than 50 years in Britain, leaving her unable to access her late husband’s pension or her own state pension. He said: “Me and my siblings had a fear with the current government rhetoric around immigrants meant for us, what if my mum was sent back to Pakistan now this is a person that hasn’t been back for 50 years. What would she do when if she had to go back to a country that she no longer would recognise, 50 years is a long time.”
Describing the emotional toll that followed, he added: “Filling out government official forms which could result in my mum being taken away from me has been really traumatic for me.”
Although his mother’s status has since been resolved, he said it came at a significant financial and emotional cost, and the family have also submitted a claim to the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Speaking after his mother eventually secured citizenship, he said: “I felt like my mum was not treated as if she was a British citizen even though she’s lived here and contributed.”
View 4 ImagesJohn Hazel, a 21-year-old boxer, Harold Wilmot, 32, and John Richards, a 22-year-old carpenter, arriving at Tilbury on board the ex-troopship ‘Empire Windrush'(Image: Getty Images)
The letter also includes three demands: moving the Windrush Compensation Scheme out of the Home Office and placing it under an independent body, guaranteeing non-means-tested legal assistance for claimants and adopting a “soft edge” approach to evidence that recognises the difficulty of obtaining historical documents.
Ms Hamilton also hopes the scheme will be moved out of the Home Office. She added: “They shouldn’t be able to govern and create their own thing when they’re the perpetrators of why it even exists to begin with. It’s kind of like they’ve designed things in a way to fatigue people and to keep your morale down.”
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Matthew McGregor, CEO of 38 Degrees, said: “It’s been 78 years to the day since HMT Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks in Essex and yet still thousands of people whose families came to the UK on this ship and others like it are having to fight for justice. Enough is enough.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As we celebrate Windrush Day, we recognise the immense contribution the Windrush community has made to our country, and reiterate our commitment to ensuring victims are heard, justice is sped up, and that the Windrush Compensation Scheme is run effectively.
“The Scheme has already paid over £127million across 3,978 claims, and in January major reforms to the scheme came into effect, offering greater compensation for victims and faster decisions for over 75s. We have also established a £1.5million Advocacy Support Fund, giving trusted community groups the funding they need to help people with their claims.”