Most Windrush Claimants Still Not Compensated; Home Office to Undergo Migration and Race Training

Kristen Zanoni | October 5, 2020

Category: Civil Rights

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Hundreds of claimants in the Windrush scandal are still without compensation.

Meanwhile, the Home Office has promised to deliver a “cultural shift” to ensure history doesn’t repeat the injustices endured by the Windrush Generation.

The Home Office has implemented changes recommended in the Wishrush Lessons Learned Review in an attempt to weed out racism and discrimination against immigrants.

Only 143 victims had been paid out in the Windrush scandal as of July, according to the Daily Mail.

Since April 2019, over a thousand victims have filed claims in the Windrush scandal scheme.

As of July, the Windrush scandal scheme had awarded £1,053,223.17 to only 143 victims out of 1,480 compensation claimants.

Since these official figures were publicised, five additional claims have been filed for victims who have already died.

Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Daily Mail the Windrush scheme is “complicated” and is urging to have the rest of the claimants paid. Lawyers for the claimants say justice hasn’t been served in the Windrush scandal compensation scheme.

The Windrush compensation scheme was created after hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their families from Caribbean countries were unjustifiably labelled as “illegal” by the Home Office, the BBC reported.

Named the Windrush Generation, families from the Caribbean were welcomed to come to the U.K. from 1948 to 1971 to fill open job positions during labour shortages following World War II.

But in 2018, these families were stripped of their legal rights and intimidated with deportation threats.

Unfortunately, victims of the Windrush scandal are passing away before they can obtain the compensation they are legally owed.

Nine law firms have written to the Home Office expressing how the Windrush scandal compensation scheme has not provided justice to victims and their families, according to the Daily Mail.

“This is yet more damning evidence that Government ministers are failing the many victims of the Windrush scandal,” Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds told the Daily Mail. “People who have been appallingly treated are facing unacceptable waits for compensation.”

Thoman-Symonds added: “This is particularly awful for those who are working and those in later life. The time for words from the Government is over — ministers need to get on and deliver for those who have been so badly treated.”

Patel has promised a shift in how people from other cultures are viewed in the eyes of the government, and the Home Office has responded to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.

The Windrush Lessons Learned Review was initiated in 2018 to examine the events that preceded the Windrush scandal. The review was published 19 March 2020.

On 20 Sept. 2020, Patel renewed her promise to reform the Windrush Lessons Learned Review to protect future generations from enduring the injustices faced by the Windrush generation.

The Comprehensive Improvement Plan includes:

The development of a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Hub;
An analysis of how the compliant environment works;
A new training programme for all staff to learn to focus on individuals, not cases; and
A staff-wide training on migration and race history in the U.K.

But for many victims of the Windrush scandal, these commitments from the Home Office are meaningless unless real change actually happens.

Former Royal Artillery soldier Anthony Williams is a victim of the Windrush scandal.

He was labelled as an illegal immigrant 42 years after he legally came to the U.K. from Jamaica when he was 7, The Guardian reported.

In turn, he was fired from his job and not allowed to file for unemployment benefits because he was classified as “illegal.” He is still awaiting compensation.

“We hear these apologies all the time,” Williams told The Guardian. “They keep announcing working groups or programmes for reform – why don’t they just implement it? It feels like they are just paying lip service.”

Do you think the government’s attempts at reform in response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review will fix things? Do you think all the Windrush scandal victims will now receive the compensation they are due? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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