Our Story
The Windrush generation refers to the half a million people who came to the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973. The name is a reference to one particular ship, MV Empire Windrush, which in its first and only voyage, transported almost 500 passengers to Tilbury Docks. Many of the people aboard the ship were children.
The 1971 Immigration Act gave Commonwealth citizens already living in the UK indefinite leave to remain in the country. The ‘Windrush generation’ refers to Commonwealth nationals who settled in the UK before 1973. The 1971 Immigration Act provided protection for Commonwealth citizens if they had lived here for more than five years and if they arrived in the country before 1973.
Exactly how many people belong to the Windrush generation is unclear. Many people who came over during the period arrived as children, travelled on a parent’s passport, and never had travel documents.
In 2012, under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, the Hostile Environment policy came into place. The policy aimed to make life as difficult as possible for immigrants living in the UK without leave to remain, hoping that they would leave voluntarily.
The policy was spearheaded by Theresa May, who was Home Secretary at the time. It enforced ID checks by the NHS, landlords, banks, etc. and instructed them to refuse their services if anyone was unable to prove residency in the UK. The policy meant that landlords and business owners who did not comply would be faced with fines of up to £10,000.
From 2013, people of the Windrush generation started to receive letters claiming that they had no right to be in the UK. Before long, some people of the Windrush generation were being treated as ‘illegal immigrants’ and started to lose their jobs, homes, benefits and access to the NHS. Some were placed in immigration detention, deported, or being refused the right to return from abroad.
It was as early as 2013 that the Home Office received notice that people from the Windrush generation were being treated as undocumented immigrants - although there is evidence that this was happening much earlier.
The same year, there were attempts by Caribbean leaders to shine a light on the issue to British ministers. These attempts were ignored, with a direct refusal from Downing Street to meet with the leaders.
In 2017, various newspapers started to pick up on the deportations, but it wasn’t until 2018 that it was acknowledged in Parliament, finally appearing in Prime Minister’s Questions in March 2018.
It’s during this period that it became known as “the Windrush Scandal.”
The Hostile Environment policy, created to show a tougher stance on immigration, had spiralled out of control, raising the bar of evidential proof to heights that were impossible to reach.
Consequently, people who had spent their entire lives in the UK were wrongly thrown in immigration detention and sometimes deported out of the country.
In 2019, parts of the report were leaked, revealing a broken Home Office failing in its legal duty to counter racial discrimination. The leak also showed that evidence of the scandal had been actively ignored by British ministers and that they had failed to be honest with the public about the risks of their policies.
At the same time, we published the Lessons Not Learned Report, which makes a series of targeted recommendations to transform the ‘inhumane and inefficient’ asylum determination system. But for any of these to succeed, we argue that the government must ‘hit the reset button’ on the Home Office. Change is possible but will only be delivered if there is a commitment to a change in culture and approach from the very highest levels of government.
We believe that the Home Office should not be able to operate on a ‘business as usual’ basis while the Wendy Williams Lessons Learned Report remains unpublished. Despite this report, people are still being deported to countries where the only connection they have is the fact they left when they were very young.
LOWD gained charitable status in June 2021 and is now positioned as one of the few Black-led infrastructure organisations.