Re: The Windrush Debacle
Originally Posted by
Flowerpower
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I meant how many people were deported back to the West Indies as that was what we were discussing. the figures you are giving are for illegal immigrants or people who have outstayed their visas. The Windrush people came here legally.
Well given the track record of the Home Office we don't know if they were all legal or illegal do we? It appears that the Home Office has had a negative attitude to anyone who is not born here. I read an article today about a former British high commissioner in Trinidad and Tobago who tried to register his child as a British citizen. He said "the Home Office treats everyone with disdain to the point of absurdity". "It's a hostility policy that falls heaviest on those who have the least".
But is this about people actually being deported or people being threatened with deportation? Because Windrush is about people who were here legally being threatened with deportation and hounded sometimes for years. People who are here legally being told they have no rights and no access to healthcare and social security etc. People who don't have the right records to prove legality. I don't think we know how many have been forced to leave because that information hasn't been released. But we do know that one man has died from the stress of being hounded. I'm sure there will be more similar stories. A very stressed Amber Rudd has admitted to the select committee that she does not know how many are affected.
The threat of deportation and withdrawal of services is awful for people who are often vulnerable and insecure about their position in British society, as they have often had to deal with racism and rejection all their lives. It's not like these people have had easy lives here. I can't understand why you don't see how shocking it is that they have had to deal with such shoddy treatment after living here for so many years.