Windrush Scandal

[rampant]

I've been watching this unfold over the last week, and today it has hit the government big style. Essentially Afro-Carribbean Britons that arrived in the post war years as children are being forced to prove that they are British or face deportation. They have been denied access to the NHS and the process for proving residence and leave to stay has been placed extraordinarily high. These people were British subjects from the colonies, and under the 1948 Nationality Act had right of free movement and residence throughout the Empire and Great Britain.. they came here as Brits, they stayed and built their lives here as Brits. And now have faced threat of deportation and some have been deported already This is turning into a massive disaster for the Govt and the Home Office and is a direct result of their "Hostile Environment Policy"

Background reading

Windrush children: why Commonwealth citizens are being denied immigration status - Free Movement

The children of Windrush: 'I’m here legally, but they’re asking me to prove I’m British'

Hounding Commonwealth citizens is no accident. It’s cruelty by design | Gary Younge

Even the Mail and Mogg are getting stuck into them

Outrage as Britain’s Windrush immigrants are SNUBBED at this week’s Commonwealth summit | Daily Mail Online

Jacob Rees-Mogg Lays Into "Disgraceful" Home Office Over Windrush Row - LBC

The Government has now admitted they have made a mistake, despite for the last week refusing to meet Caribbean Commonwealth delegates to discuss the issue.

Terrible mistakes over Windrush - minister

It has emerged that some have been deported already


This has turend into a very messy and expensive mistake for the government, politically (esp at the start of CHOGM) and will be again in compensation for those deported.

Completely avoidable.

 

[meerkatz]

Not The first time HMG has done this. Its been done with other former colonies citizens.
Its an 'easy kill' for immigration to bung out people not hiding and get their numbers up..

 

[TheHatsRevenge]

Does this come under the law of unintended consequences? .Does it seem that ,whilst drafting legislation in the last few years there was little checking of the knock on effect to older legislation?, looks more like poor constitutional research by Govt and ministers than an effort at direct discrimination.

 

[velcrostripes]

This anomaly was highlighted 30 years ago in a film starring Denzel Washington called " For Queen & Country "
It's obviously been quietly simmering away for all that time and finally blown up in the Government's face .
Für Königin und Vaterland (1988) - IMDb

 

[Not a Boffin]

looks more like poor constitutional research by Govt and ministers than an effort at direct discrimination.

Seems definitely c0ck-up rather than conspiracy. Not that that will stop the raaaaaacist outrage bus driven by David Lammy.

ETA - and for the avoidance of doubt, it's a shameful c0ck-up that needs sorting very much sooner rather than later. That does not mean that the HO and all it's denizens are institutionally anything.

 

[dogmeat]

Nice to see Newman has been given something less taxing to shriek about; the poor thing's has a rough time of it recently.

 

[lokiuk]

Why has it taken so long to get in the news ?

 

[rampant]

Does this come under the law of unintended consequences? .Does it seem that ,whilst drafting legislation in the last few years there was little checking of the knock on effect to older legislation?, looks more like poor constitutional research by Govt and ministers than an effort at direct discrimination.

Certainly historical ignorance, but as soon as the first case landed on the doorstep, somebody should have realised the cock up. The fact that they continued in this manner was willfully blind

 

[rampant]

Why has it taken so long to get in the news ?

It's been in the news for a while, these stories are from last year

‘I can’t eat or sleep’: the woman threatened with deportation after 50 years in Britain

'They don't tell you why': threatened with removal after 52 years in the UK

It's only in the last week that it has hit home. The government and Home Office were refusing to deal with it, hoping it would go away. It's now blown up in their faces.

 

[TheHatsRevenge]

Why has it taken so long to get in the news ?

Cos some old Russian was poisoned in Salisbury and then the rubble in Syria had to be re-arranged before a problem that first came up a few years ago could be released to distract from the current distractions that were required to distract Brexit distractions.......I think ?

 

[thegimp]

Apparently when advised to rock up at the home office to discuss, people who have lived in the UK for 60 years, employed paying tax and NI and with kids and grandkids were detained and deported

That'd be a right shocker.

Johnny Mercer was on daily politics and handled it better than the immigration minister. He basically said, look it's a ******* mess, it's been identified, we are putting resources in place to fix it.

Immigration minister was a bit woolly about it all.

Worth asking some more specific questions.

What are the numbers involved currently and already processed

Any in detention should be released immediately

How did it happen, was it outsourced, did no one flag it up? Why is this coming to light only now

Have they got the resources to manage it quickly, IM minister was suggesting only senior immigration case workers would be dealing with cases, are there enough of them.

Is any action going to be retrospective, including reverting people who have already been deported.


People have lost long term jobs/careers, been denied uk residents benefits and deported and no doubt further consequences,are they going to be suitably compensated

 

[meerkatz]

This was anomaly was highlighted 30 years ago in a film starring Denzel Washington called " For Queen & Country "
It's obviously been quietly simmering away for all that time and finally blown up in the Government's face .
Für Königin und Vaterland (1988) - IMDb

It was a f**k up with the 1983 Nationality Act, wife was caught out by it as she came here as a British Subject and that status was removed by the Act. When she applied for a UK passport in 2000, she was served with a deportation notice - cnuts.
Fortunately she had my citizenship and RoA to fall back on so they dropped that silly idea and quietly gave her a UK passport and citizenship.

All the WIndrush generation would have been 'Subjects' and the kids cant inherit their parents nationality if they were subjects.

So yes, they have known about it for a very long time. but funnily, they had no problem quietly giving all Falkland Islanders full British status when it was pointed out we'd fought a war for what had become not properly British people.

 

[Provost]

Its an 'easy kill' for immigration to bung out people not hiding and get their numbers up..

Quite. Low hanging fruit - as the saying goes. There are countless thousands of more recently arrived illegals that the immigration people won't deal with because they do not have any papers.

Whenever we stopped them and ascertained their status, the immigration people would not even bother to come out. It's the old story when targets are involved. Go for the line of least resistance.

They claim that the bath plug has been pulled, but both the taps are still full on.

 

[meerkatz]

Quite. Low hanging fruit - as the saying goes. There are countless thousands of more recently arrived illegals that the immigration people won't deal with because they do not have any papers.

Whenever we stopped them and ascertained their status, the immigration people would not even bother to come out. It's the old story when targets are involved. Go for the line of least resistance.

They claim that the bath plug has been pulled, but both the taps are still full on.

Its Catch 22 as the people caught out in this stateless grey area have been well aware of for decades.

How do you acquire UK citizenship and regularise yourself?

Apply for naturalisation

And having stuck your hand up and given an address, you get a deportation notice by return post.


The idea behind scrapping British Subject status in the 80's was to stop a flood of millions of Chinese coming to the UK with the impending handing back of Hong Kong. The WIndrush etc problem was just unintended collateral damage.

 

[rampant]

Quite. Low hanging fruit - as the saying goes. There are countless thousands of more recently arrived illegals that the immigration people won't deal with because they do not have any papers.

Whenever we stopped them and ascertained their status, the immigration people would not even bother to come out. It's the old story when targets are involved. Go for the line of least resistance.

They claim that the bath plug has been pulled, but both the taps are still full on.

Foreign students have been another target of the low hanging fruit issue (ie restriction), this despite opposition from Universities, Trade Unions, Business and the Public the vast majority of the public viewing foreign students as benefiting the country and should not be included in the immigration targets/statistics.

 

[velcrostripes]

Maybe Gina Miller & Richard f*cking Branson should help fund the legal campaign to get this clusterf*ck sorted out , instead of constantly whinging about Brexit .
Bet they don't , though .

 

[rampant]

Currently being debated in Parliament. It appears they know people have been deported but don't know how many


This would be laughable if it wasn't people's lives

 

[Provost]

Foreign students have been another target of the low hanging fruit issue (ie restriction), this despite opposition from Universities, Trade Unions, Business and the Public the vast majority of the public viewing foreign students as benefiting the country and should not be included in the immigration targets/statistics.

That point is not so clear to me. There are many 'students' attending dubious seats of learning and many others signed up to legit places who's record of attendance is poor to non-existent. I am also a great believer in students who have benefited from a superior education returning to their countries of origin and where appropriate, using their skills and education to the benefit of their home nations.

This might do something to alleviate the situation where the uneducated young are encouraged to flow endlessly towards economically successful countries because that is the only way they can see their future. What we doing is perpetuating this situation.

 

[rampant]

Government furiously backing down on this issue


Will those who have already paid be refunded, what about those who had to pay for medical care they were denied for free on the NHS?

 

[meerkatz]

Its not malice, just plain good old incompetence and institutional ignorance.
A lot off people thought the 2001 British Overseas Territories Bill sorted out the issue, it didn't.
It only applied to the bits we still own, but it did eliminate many cases.

How many were affected?
Enough, people settled with good jobs, houses and kids had to leave.

Some light reading

Family of woman facing deportation after 50 years in UK demand apology

http://www.itv.com/news/2018-04-11/...pite-living-in-the-uk-for-more-than-50-years/