The Windrush Betrayal by Amelia Gentleman

Author:Amelia Gentleman [Amelia Gentleman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783351862
Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing
Published: 2019-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

Martin Jones was not the only person with experience of working for the Home Office who was feeling uneasy about the unfolding scandal. I was called by several other staffers in early 2018 who were also angry. A Home Office employee who had worked in the Immigration and Citizenship Departments in Liverpool for decades called to vent his fury at the way the cases of long-term residents were being handled. He felt loyal to the institution where he had spent so much of his working life but was concerned that things had changed.

‘The introduction of the hostile environment policy meant the mentality was: “I’m going to say no, unless you can prove me wrong,” whereas before, we’d been a lot more lenient towards the Commonwealth immigrants. We had no problem about going after everyone else, but the Commonwealth immigrants had always been a different kettle of fish,’ the official (who asked not to be named) said. ‘That changed about five or six years ago with the hostile environment. Some of the immigration people welcomed it. There was a “Gotcha” attitude – some people enjoyed it; I didn’t like that.’

The Liverpool ex-Home Office worker said there was a younger cohort of immigration employees who were more aggressive in their attitude to undocumented Windrush generation residents struggling to establish their right to remain in the UK. ‘People who were coming into the department were new and didn’t have the background knowledge about immigration in the 1960s that I had,’ he said. ‘I was saying to them: “Look, they’re more British than you! How can you, a twenty-seven-year-old fellow, refuse a fifty-four-year-old fellow, and say he’s not entitled to remain in a country he’s lived in for fifty-one years?” It is madness.

‘There were some people who enjoyed saying: “I’ve caught you, you are illegal.” But they weren’t illegal at all. The Jamaicans and Trinidadians – these are Commonwealth people, who were British subjects or citizens of the UK and colonies, before their countries became independent.’

He was ‘shocked and ashamed’ to read about cases of Windrush generation residents, who had been here for over half a century, being detained. ‘I’m astounded by it all,’ he said.

‘How are you expecting them to have four documents for every year that they’ve been here? It’s pathetic. Particularly because we have been trusting them all these years – they were the same as us, only a different colour. They’ve been done a huge disservice.’

Previously staff had been allowed to apply reasonable discretion towards applicants in this group. ‘Some had come on their parents’ passport. Some of them came on their own passports – most of them didn’t still have them, of course they didn’t, they’ve been here for forty years,’ he said. ‘So the policy in the Citizenship Department was: if they say they have been here for that long, OK, provided they pass the character checks and they’re not mass murderers, then in they come, give them British citizenship.’ The policy had been ‘to accept that people were telling the truth because there was no reason to doubt them’, he said.

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