In 2019 we started a petition calling for an Independent Public Inquiry into the Windrush Scandal. There have been new calls for such an inquiry and because the matter is now urgent due to the age of the Windrush Generation, we are renewing our petition call with the update below, setting out why we think this is needed now, which you can also access via the petition site.
Click here to sign
It has been a long time since we started this petition with
a global pandemic between then and now. I
first called for an Independent Public Inquiry into the Windrush Scandal via
the government petition site at the start of 2019 but it failed to gain the
required number of signatures to trigger a debate in Parliament within the set
six months permitted for such petitions, so we launched this one.
The long awaited and delayed Windrush
Lessons Learned review, which was published in 2020, had a narrow and limited focus and did not have the
powers or scope of a Public Inquiry with a failure to implement the vast
majority of recommendations in any meaningful way.
In 2024 the Home Office came under criticism for failure to release
a report into the roots of the Windrush Scandal, spanning thirty years of racist immigration legislation which
continues to this day.
“The Home Office has been forced to release a suppressed
report on the origins of the Windrush scandal by a tribunal judge who
quoted George Orwell in a judgment criticising the department’s lack of
transparency.
For the past three years, Home Office staff have worked to
bury a hard-hitting research paper that states that roots of the scandal lay in
30 years of racist immigration legislation designed to reduce the UK’s
non-white population.
The 52-page analysis by a Home Office-commissioned
historian, who has not been named, described how “the British empire depended
on racist ideology in order to function” and explained how this ideology had
driven immigration laws passed in the postwar period.
The department rejected several freedom of information
requests asking for the Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal to be
released, arguing that publication might damage affected communities’ “trust in
government” and “its future development of immigration policy.”
When we were campaigning to expose the Windrush Scandal
several freedom of information requests we made to the Home Office were ignored
and had to be escalated multiple times
to the highest levels with the Information Commissioners Office to force some
sort of response.
This year there have been calls by prominent campaigners we
have worked alongside with for a public inquiry:
You may also be interested in reading this community led
inquiry report:
https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/x15qv/the-windrush-justice-inquiry-report
We have quite rightly seen public inquiries take place into the
horrendous Infected Blood Scandal
and Post Office Scandal
and we send our full solidarity to
everyone impacted by those scandals. But that lead to the question of why has
there not been a public inquiry into the
Windrush Scandal? Why are we still having to demand this. Why are we still
being treated like third class citizens.
Why is this urgent?
Because we have seen too many of those who faced injustice because
of the Windrush Scandal, including being made destitute, exiled from the UK for
decades, losing homes, jobs,
livelihoods, torn apart from loved ones and families for years, stripped of
their dignity and human rights, detained and deported, refused entry back into
the UK, made stateless and so much more, impacting on mental and physical
health and because we have already lost too many people die and because of time is running out before many more will pass
away.
According to the government’s own records, 8,800 claims have
been made for compensation, of which disgracefully, only 2,600 have received payments (up to the end of
July 2024). We believe that there are many more who are eligible but have not made claims because of how
difficult and stressful the process. We know that initial offers have usually
been insultingly low and this has meant that people have had to go through
appeals too.
In June this year a Windrush Commissioner was appointed, Reverend
Clive Foster, the government describe
the role of the commissioner is to ‘provide independent oversight of the
government’s work to address the Home
Office Windrush Scandal and ensure the voices of victims remain at the heart of
efforts to deliver justice.’
We wish the Reverend well in their new role but this does
not address the issues a public inquiry could address, which are to address key
questions about what happened, why it happened, who is to blame and what can be
done to prevent the same happening again. The latter is crucial because descendants
of the Windrush Generation are still being targeted by the Home Office, with no
amnesty agreed, there are still deportations of migrant people happening, refugees
arriving in the UK, because they have had to flee climate change, persecution,
conflict and poverty can be subjected to the new ‘one in one out’ policy and the deport first and appeal later
approach.
We would be grateful if you were to share this update with
your networks and encourage them to sign the petition so we can grow it and that
you ask your local MP to write to the Home Secretary on your behalf calling
for a public inquiry into the Windrush Scandal as a matter of urgency giving
that time is running out for those directly impacted. If you do not know who
your MP is, you can find them here.
Many thanks for your support.
#ConductAnIndependentPublicInquiryWindrush
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