Racist British Immigration policy and The Windrush scandal

A hitherto unreleased report commissioned by the UK Home Office lays the blame for the Windrush scandal, which saw hundreds of citizens from the Commonwealth wrongly detained, denied legal rights and in some cases deported from the UK, squarely at the feet of unjust laws that deliberately target people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Officials have so far refused to make the report public, much to the ire of lawyers like Jacqueline McKenzie, who represents a sizable number of Windrush victims.

She's threatening to challenge the home office on behalf of her clients.

We all have a right to know what's in this report; why is it a secret? It is predicated on a need to establish what caused the Windrush scandal to make sure that we never go there again, and also to right the wrongs and if we can't see it, then it suggests something very sinister is going on.

Jacqueline McKenzie, Solicitor for Windrush Victims

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The Home Office says it is making progress toward becoming an open and compassionate organization. But for those who have to deal with the fallout of their racist legislation, they're finding it hard to reconcile that statement with their own experiences.

We got to this position after 30-40 years of racist immigration policy, building one on top of the other until the point now where we probably have the most discriminatory and draconian racist immigration legislation anywhere outside of Israel.

Lee Jaspar, Former Advisor to Mayor of London

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Despite thousands coming to settle from former British colonies, immigration laws, it seemed, favored a certain type of immigrant, a trend that continues into today with the announcement that the UK will fast track graduates from the top 50 universities, none of which are in Africa, The Caribbean or Latin America.

We see that privileges were given to other groups of people, particularly people from what was described as the old Commonwealth Basically white people from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and white South Africans, you know, so, racist ideology has always underpinned this.

Remember when the Windrush boat itself was outside the docks, and Labour Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, was actually considering sending that boat around, remember that's the 22nd of June 1948.

Jacqueline McKenzie, Solicitor for Windrush Victims

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Things are set to get worse.

The Home Secretary now has the power to strip you of your citizenship, whether you're British born or not, and have you summarily shipped out the country.

So not only are they not fixing all that was wrong with Windrush they are actually giving themselves more power to commit more of the similar sorts of abuses without being contrary to the law.

Lee Jaspar, Former Advisor to Mayor of London

Hopefully, forcing the home office to publish the so far secretive report will lay bare Britain's immigration practices for all to see in the hope that deep scrutiny means that there can be no further repeats.

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