Windrush generation

[denphone]

Shameful and one policy this country should be utterly ashamed of.

https://www.ft.com/content/b7d5d1e2-...a-295c97e6fd0b

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...rted-zt3bzqw9r

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...y-policy-cruel

[nomadking]

It is a result of a situation that has existed for a long time, ie before 2010. There have been threats of deportation of people who came here as children. They leave this country for the first time to go on holiday and had trouble getting back in.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by denphone

Shameful and one policy this country should be utterly ashamed of.

https://www.ft.com/content/b7d5d1e2-...a-295c97e6fd0b

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...rted-zt3bzqw9r

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...y-policy-cruel

It wasn't deliberate, Den, but an inadvertent result of a change in the law a few years ago.

Glad to say that the Government is now working to put this right.

I can't believe people have been deported because of this. It's ridiculous. How did it get this far? How could the policy be so inhuman and resistant to basic logic? The absurd burden of proof these people had to obtain in order to remain and no one picked up on it until the media ran these stories?

The Government not only need to fix this for the windrush population but think how to better judge who has right to remain in future. This could happen to the EU population in a few decades time.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Damien

I can't believe people have been deported because of this. It's ridiculous. How did it get this far? How could the policy be so inhuman and resistant to basic logic? The absurd burden of proof these people had to obtain in order to remain and no one picked up on it until the media ran these stories?

The Government not only need to fix this for the windrush population but think how to better judge who has right to remain in future. This could happen to the EU population in a few decades time.

It seems to have been the result of an over-zealous Home Office bureaucracy and a failure of the Windrush people to get their paperwork in order at the time. I'm not criticising them, it's just the benefit of hindsight.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It wasn't deliberate, Den, but an inadvertent result of a change in the law a few years ago.

It might not have been deliberate but it was a policy that was cruel and heartless given that many of these people have lost their jobs, rights to health and benefits and faced deportation despite being able to show they have paid tax and National Insurance for decades..

---------- Post added at 10:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 ----------

Originally Posted by Damien

I can't believe people have been deported because of this. It's ridiculous. How did it get this far? How could the policy be so inhuman and resistant to basic logic? The absurd burden of proof these people had to obtain in order to remain and no one picked up on it until the media ran these stories?

The Government not only need to fix this for the windrush population but think how to better judge who has right to remain in future. This could happen to the EU population in a few decades time.

God help us if there is not a sea change in their attitude and culture before then.

[nomadking]

The lack of access to the NHS and threat of deportation have been there all along. In the past, the NHS was meant to do checks, but didn't.

The problem is the lack of records kept in the PAST, when they arrived.

As I said previously, there have been instances of people having arrived as children and decades later, suddenly having a threat of being deported. Nothing new, except the fuss being made.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It seems to have been the result of an over-zealous Home Office bureaucracy and a failure of the Windrush people to get their paperwork in order at the time. I'm not criticising them, it's just the benefit of hindsight.

The paperwork requirements are mad though. Proof of having lived here for each year? How many people have paperwork for each year they lived here? Especially before NI contributions were digitalised. Even someone careful and proper with documentation might miss this standard.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It seems to have been the result of an over-zealous Home Office bureaucracy and a failure of the Windrush people to get their paperwork in order at the time. I'm not criticising them, it's just the benefit of hindsight.

And a change in the law 4 years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...emoved-in-2014

The onus is on individuals to prove they were resident in the UK before 1 January 1973, the date the 1971 Immigration Act came into force. However, a key clause from 1999 legislation, which had provided longstanding Commonwealth residents with protection from enforced removal, was deleted from the 2014 Immigration Act. The government did not announce the removal of this clause, nor did it consult on the potential ramifications.

Sky News is reporting that there is no evidence any ‘Windrush’ migrants were deported.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington has told Sky News that the Home Office remains unaware of any cases where Windrush generation Britons had been deported.

He said: "We've got no evidence of any such cases. The Home Secretary has asked her officials to go back through their records and double check."

But he added: "It's been badly handled and the Home Secretary was right to make a full apology not just on behalf of her department but the Government as a whole.

"This should not have happened and what the Home Secretary's now done is announced and put in place a series of measures not just to stop this happening again, but positively to help people from this generation who have not yet regularised their status in the UK."

[RichardCoulter]

I suppose it depends on what the deal was when they came here. Was it a benefit of coming to fill job vacancies that they would be allowed to settle here for life, or was it always the case that this was a temporary thing?

If it was always known to be a temporary arrangements they can't really complain, but after all this time it's no longer as simple as that.

I know lots of people who came here who always had the intention of only staying for a fixed period, however, once they met a partner, had children etc they began to buy houses and such.

Racial discrimination laws made their lives easier and they were no longer happy to do the jobs that they were originally brought over for, resulting in promotion to better paid jobs.

Even at this stage many would say that they would go back to where they still considered home upon retirement. The problem was, after making friends and creating new family here, going home meant that they would have to uproot and make new friends just as they were getting older. The friends and family that they had left behind had probably died or moved on.

Whilst they would be able to take their pension abroad; i'm not sure if the Caribbean countries have something similar to Housing Benefit to help with rent etc (there again, their standard of living might be much cheaper and the British pension may be enough to live on.)

Also, just as they were getting older and more likely to need healthcare, they would lose the benefits of the NHS, many who will have paid for over the course of their working life.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by nomadking

The lack of access to the NHS and threat of deportation have been there all along. In the past, the NHS was meant to do checks, but didn't.

The problem is the lack of records kept in the PAST, when they arrived.


As I said previously, there have been instances of people having arrived as children and decades later, suddenly having a threat of being deported. Nothing new, except the fuss being made.

There were records but they were destroyed.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ays-ex-staffer

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by denphone

There were records but they were destroyed.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ays-ex-staffer

That wouldn't have been a problem - if that data was then kept in another record system somewhere.

It seems multiple times over the years the impact changes to records and rules will have on these people has been missed or ignored

Originally Posted by denphone

There were records but they were destroyed.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ays-ex-staffer

In 2010.....

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by denphone

There were records but they were destroyed.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ays-ex-staffer

Name and date of arrival isn't proof of anything much. The rest of us have to provide more than that. They were not official documents and not considered to be an official record. They just took advantage of having the cards. If they were ever going to be used as an official record, the info would have been transferred to a central set of records. It is not just a matter of having having arrived at some point, they also have to had to remain. The cards don't provide that.

“securely dispose of some documents known as registration slips. These slips provided details of an individual’s date of entry but did not provide any reliable evidence relating to ongoing residence in the UK or their immigration status.”

The Home Office added that in deciding immigration cases, it considers alternative documents, such as tax records and utility bills, as evidence of ongoing residency. “The disposal of registration slips would therefore have no bearing on immigration cases whereby Commonwealth citizens are proving residency in the UK.”

If UK officials had kept a record of everyone granted indefinite leave to remain, they say, the problem would never have arisen.