Thread: On the anniversary of Windrush, I remember the contributions of the 492 West Indian immigrants who arrived at Tilbury Docks on 22nd June 1948, and of the 524,000 Commonwealth-born people who followed until 1971.
My thoughts go out to the thousands of people who came before 1971, to form the backbone of our public services in Britain. I think of the nurses like my aunts, who I watched work late nights and early shifts with incredible pride and dignity.
I think of the thousands of transport workers who were recruited directly from Bridgetown and Kingston, and who for 70 years worked as bus and train drivers, and cleaners and wardens, in Britain’s stations and on Britain’s streets.
Those on board HMT Windrush were invited here to rebuild a Britain crippled by war: a Britain facing chronic shortages of staff, with a dream of ‘healthcare for all’ but no way of making it happen.
Britain called, and they came. They came because they wanted to rebuild post-war Britain. And they came because three centuries of colonial rule had stripped the Caribbean of much of its wealth and resources and left behind significant unemployment.
The Britain to which they contributed so much has failed them. Seventy years on from the arrival of HMT Windrush, the Government thanked the Windrush generation for their service to this country by throwing them into detention centres, and deporting them.
The Hostile Environment denied Windrush citizens access to public services to which so many had dedicated their lives. Nurses, train drivers & public sector workers were told that their contributions were null and void and that they should leave this country immediately.
Those victims have still not seen justice, and the Government’s response to the crisis continues to be inadequate. There is still no hardship fund for victims of the scandal. People made destitute by the Home Office are forced to wait months and months for compensation.
The Windrush Taskforce, specially appointed to support victims of the scandal, has repeatedly breached their two-week deadline for resolving cases. More than a hundred citizens are still waiting for appointments with the Home Office weeks after they first contacted them.
The anniversary of Windrush is bittersweet. The victims of this crisis, people who have given so much and asked for so little, are still facing desperate uncertainty.
Above all, today I pay tribute to them. I think of my 28 constituents with ongoing cases and the thousands of other Commonwealth-born Britons who still live in fear of the Hostile Environment.
