LONDON: Britain celebrates today (Thursday) the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship bringing workers from the West Indies, but with the bitter legacy of a wrongful deportation scandal still fresh.
Known as the “Windrush generation”, thousands of people came to the United Kingdom at the invitation of the British government between 1948 and the early 1970s to fill shortages of key workers following World War II.
Mostly from Tobago and Jamaica or Trinidad, the workers received indefinite leave to remain, but many who did not apply for passports later found themselves in trouble. They were targeted by immigration laws intended to create a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants.
Many lost jobs, health care, homes, pensions and benefits because they could not produce paperwork, while others were taken into custody or forced to return to the Caribbean.
Five years after the scandal sparked outrage, many of those affected are still waiting for the promised compensation.
It is to mention here that 75 years ago on June 22, 1948, several hundred migrants, mainly from the British colony of Jamaica, disembarked from the Empire Windrush ship at the port of Tilbury east of London.
“Welcome home,” ran the headline in London’s Evening Standard newspaper. —AFP/APP
