Our Windrush Generation shackled & chained facing unlawful deportations is a traumatic throwback to colonialism
The “hostile environment” created by successive governments before escalating under Theresa May is in full-effect. And let’s be clear. the system is not broken-it’s working exactly as it was intended to.
Despite revelations from the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, that the government broke equalities law, unlawfully deporting those who might have had a right to remain in the UK, the Home Office proceeded in December 2020, with plans to deport yet more descendants of our Windrush families, threatening to repeat more injustices. We are deeply concerned that without action, we will see this state of affairs continue in 2021.
For us, this is like pouring salt into an already open and unaddressed wound. Because we feel it’s intentional.
Not only have recommendations by the review not been implemented, despite promises from Home Secretary Priti Patel that they would be, the government, proceeded with the deportations in spite of criticism from MPs, notable figures, a petition amassing hundreds of thousands of signatures, and a resignation from within the Windrush task-force’s own review and compensation scheme.
While thankfully, due to last minute legal interventions, some were pulled from the plane at the last minute, others were deported as planned.
Those who were lucky, were only lucky, because of human rights lawyers working tirelessly around the clock, on their behalf.
The fact is, the government has paid only lip service, to the injustices heaped on our Black communities, while continuing the same draconian racist policies. These deportations, needless to say, are like red-meat to the braying jackals of racism and nativism in this country.
Not only is the Windrush injustice a symptom of deeply entrenched institutional racism, but at every juncture, the government’s own so-called process in correcting this injustice, is itself also steeped accusations of systemic racism.
When the scandal around the Windrush injustices first came to light, the government responded in the same way it did over the Grenfell fire disaster. A period of so-called reflection, followed by promises that changes would be made, to ensure such a crime and injustice would never be repeated.
And yet, on December 2nd last year, the government ploughed ahead and deported more Jamaicans, on a charter flight. Activists and human rights campaigners argued consistently that the action risked breaking the law.
Indeed, Jacqueline McKenzie, a human rights lawyer who argued against the planned deportations told me "This entire business needs legislative reform and to be examined carefully, because it’s not just those who are deported who are affected and significantly too, but scores of children whose mental wellbeing and therefore life chances are diminished through no fault of their own. I make no apologies for saying that this flight and others must be stayed until remedial action is taken by the Home Office”
Predictably, both the government and right-wing sought to highlight the more serious crimes committed by deported as justification for all the planned deportations. And of course, the government has the right to deport very serious offenders without family life in the UK or who have not lived in the UK since childhood.
But we believe that without serious change, many others remain at serious risk of deportation in the future, who’ve committed much less serious crimes as we head into 2021.
Many of the people at risk of having their lives torn apart, are the descendants of the Windrush generation and part of that same family. They have the right to remain in the United Kingdom. Their homes, lives and families are here. Many of the so-called offenders have long been rehabilitated and make valuable contributions to society.
And yet all too often they have not been deemed worthy or deserving enough to remain in the UK. They’ve been denied legal provision. They languish in immigration detention centres, which are often rife with abuse and are a potential hotbed for Covid 19, in the middle of this pandemic.
They have essentially been thrown to the wolves, at the mercy of a Home Secretary whose own policies are so draconian, that her own parents would not have been able to emigrate to the UK, under her rules.
The devastating impact of these unlawful, wrongful and inhumane deportations cannot be overstated.
We know that many who have been classed as 'illegal' by the Home Office, have died in poverty, and been denied access to vital NHS treatment.
We know of cases of people wrongly deported to Jamaica, who’ve not called it home for decades, with Britain their home, who have been killed or died as a result.
Children are left fatherless and families are left without breadwinners. The education of school-children suffers, as their parents are ripped from them.
This collective trauma, and the imagery of Black men being shackled in chains, held in immigration prisons before deportation, is a modern-day throwback to the days of colonialism. It speaks to a collective sense of intergenerational pain, felt throughout our communities.
My grandfather was part of the Windrush generation, and I know of so many others who are also the descendants of that generation too. What’s happening now is unconscionable to us.
But it’s not just us and our communities who should be concerned. With Brexit now realised, and with racism at unprecedented levels, all immigrant communities and decent minded people should be hugely concerned. If the government can do this to our communities, they can do it to others. Acting collectively now to stop further injustices to the Windrush Caribbean community is in the interest of anyone who calls Britain home.
