Thread by @JacquiMckenzie6

1/12 No one will be surprised that I'm not shocked by the Home Secretary's announcement that she'll be dropping some of the key recommendations in the #Windrush Lessons Learned Review (WLLR). She posits this with information that 21 of the 30 recommendations in the review

2/12 have been met or partially met, & provides some detail as to what this means. But what does implementation mean? The recommendations seek the undoing of decades of organisational, structural & cultural rot. How is this implementation being manifested? What are

3/12 the outcomes? How are applicants, appellants, lawyers & stakeholders experiencing this implementation? It sounds to me that the idea that 21 recommendations have been implemented, even partially, is unlikely to be real or to the standard expected of the review. Those

4/12 dropped include the reconciliation events. This is a slap in the face not just to the victims of the Windrush scandal but to the wider community, particularly in the year when the country is gearing up to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush

5/12 carrying 800 plus Caribbean nationals. This cancellation is evidence of the very low regard with which the Home Secretary & the British Government hold for this community. It is for this reason that as much as I'll be celebrating Windrush 75 in a major way, there should

6/12 also be serious reflection on the condition of the Black person in Britain today, following decades of unrelenting institutional racism which has impacted on every facet of life. It is of course no surprise that the Home Secretary has decided to drop the recommendation to

7/12 have a Migrants Commissioner who would act as a voice & advocate for the rights of migrants. Why would you want this in an anti-migrant paradigm where one could think it a humane & rational idea to disperse vulnerable children & families seeking refuge, to countries that

8/12 they have not sought asylum in. Why would you want to strengthen the role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders & Immigration, who might sctuinise & hold your department to account. As a member of the Independent Advisory Group of the WLLR, the recommendations, aimed

9/12 at creating a rational, flexible & humane immigration system, today's statement, is not surprising, but is terribly backward & dissapointing. To appear humane, we keep getting told that tens of millions has been paid in compensation to the victims of the Windrush scandal.

10/12 Firstly, this compensation is to put claimants back into the position they would have been had it not been for unlawful acts of the British government. Secondly, compensation is an entirely seperate matter to that of effecting much needed change within the Home Office.

11/12 But since the compensation scheme is appended to the discussion, the processing of 1400 claims is a poor outcome over 4 years. The decision making is slow & woeful, the evidential burden remains high & the Home Office has failed to deploy adequate resources to make the

12/12 scheme work. It is very simple. The Home Secretary does not care. No one in government cares. If they did, we'd be having the reconciliation events which the community looked forward to & the Home Secretary would be open to migrants having a champion, & to scrutiny.