Windrush Generation

The Government has had several years to rectify their mistakes as the “hostile environment” has resulted in many injustices since 2011. Deportations, driving licences suspended, refusing to allow re-entry after overseas trips, refusing NHS treatment, stays in detention centres, vital documents mislaid or destroyed by the Home Office.

Lawyers, advisors and MPs have been raising these issues for years, so the Home Office have been very aware. They had plenty of time to make good their mistakes or inefficiencies but had chosen not to do it for fear of seeming weak on immigration until the recent exposure in the Guardian. Both Theresa May and later Amber Rudd as Home Secretaries have made a deliberate point of creating a hostile environment for immigrants ignoring the long standing rights of the Windrush children.

So were they mistakes? Could the Home Office really have been that inefficient for the last seven years. Or was it part of a deliberate concerted policy?

Gerspringer Yawn!

This was a huge cock-up in the wording which was only meant to relate to illegal immigrants. However, this is now being rectified. To say the WG were targeted because of their colour is wrong. I have to smile at the indignation of some people on behalf of the black population - reminds me of a friend who wondered if it was because they thought he was too stupid to understand when he had been insulted!

You believe everyone who has come here has a strong sense of reasoning and a good level of education only here for free healthcare etc is again a very sweeping generalisation, so they can’t need any support. Anyone who has worked in a multi cultural environment can’t be racist. Obv.

I agree with you Joelsnan that this matter is not a racist matter.
It is very unfortunate that some children who came here with their parents a long time ago are now having difficulties
Proving they are who they say they are, because of changes made in order to catch illegal immigrants.Am glad the HO is now trying to help with these cases.

M0nuca
Good for you!

Your perverse view of racism says a lot.
As mentioned I worked for a number of years overseas and within a very multicultural environment.
One of my colleagues was an Indian lady who had married a British Indian boy, they lived a number of years in London where she worked in a college which taught English she as a second language. She told me that Asian ladies speaking in their own language were always 'slagging off' the country and its inhabitants so one day she asked why they stayed if they hated it so badly, their response was 'Free healthcare and free education. She said to me "you Brits are stupid to allow yourselves to be manipulated so. It wouldn't be tolerated in their own countries". I was shocked at her comment, but have to say that was the first but not the last time I heard same/similar comments from within that very multicultural environment.
I recognise everyone as individuals I do not care where anyone comes from, what the colour of their skin, for that matter you racists obviously perceive me as white British, but am I?
You carry on making Brits a laughing stock in the greater world community instead of recognising that just about everyone who chooses to come here has done so using their strong sense of reasoning, their intellect to weigh up the pros and cons, have received a good level of education and don't need bleeding hearts imagining they are lesser beings who you need to evangelise.

I never trust anyone who loudly proclaims and boasts 'I am the least racist ' (or least anything else) when it has all the connotations of value signalling.

Was it termed racist when it was the Gurkhas who were in a similar situation ? it was wrong & it was called out as wrong. It was not considered to be racist. Why cant we concentrate on the wrongness of this without adding in the racist element?

“The least racist person” is demonstrating a lot of sweeping generalisations. Being called a fat ugly cow is not the same as being sacked, denied benefits or health care, locked up in detention centres or deported. Not all of these people are strong minded people, some are sick, elderly and vulnerable and do need our support.

You may believe yourself to be the “least racist of the lot of you” and have worked and lived alongside “immigrants” joelsnan.
Who hasn’t? It’s a multicultural society now. Your attitude is condescending to say the least. “Settlers from other countries” indeed!

Thanks for your well worded posts Joelsnan.

Joelsnan, I'm not sure whether you have read any of the articles that have been posted because you continue to have a very limited view of what's been happening. Your comments re "settlers of other nationalities" etc is just strange. Perhaps you would be less dismissive of how the Windrush generation feel they are being treated if you think of this:
Empathy is... seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another

And the WG seemed to need the Guardian to get anything done about their situation didn’t they? Because of all the institutionally racist barriers that were put in their way.

Bloody hell Joel I’m not even going to waste my time on replying to that post of yours - methinks the lady doth protest too much It’s a long time since I’ve seen a post so full of unsubstantiated crap.

I posted earlier about the helpline - the HO has now decided ( no doubt after the Guardians article) that it is going to be changed - instead of being staffed by untrained people supplied by a private contractor, it is now going to be staffed by .....drum roll.....trained immigration officers. Well well well and there were people thinking it was all being dealt with yesterday. You couldn’t make it up could you?

Oh for goodness sake! Nothing I have stated could realistically be construed as racist. I possibly am the least racist of the lot of you who seem to look for the term in any comment that does not conform to your narrow views and tend to regard settlers of other nationalities to this country as being of lower intelligence and intellect to us and therefore you must protect them. Having happily lived and worked amongst immigrants here and within a multicultural environment overseas I can tell you these are intelligent strong minded people who don't need your false sympathies and indignation on their behalf. Yes I abhore name calling, when I was young we used to call a disable boy 'Jimmy nut-nut' my stomach turns at this now. I have been called big fat ugly cow! Do I run round for support and gangs to name call back?
The vast majority of this country comprise non racist people. If we were, why do people of any colour or creed still want to come here. Stop self flagellation. If these people are here legally, most will be some may not, but there is no issue, apologies have been made and remade and remedies will be found, there could have been errors and omissions by both parties.
However illegal immigration must be tackled wherever it arises.

I saw a story today about an Italian lady now in her 80s. She answered an advert for people to work in the mills in Yorkshire when she was in her 20s. Had a card which she needed to get stamped by the police at regular intervals - did everything and still has this card. She originally intended to go back to Italy but instead married a Brit and had a family. She is now an illegal immigrant because the wording on her alien card which needed the stamps is not the same as it needs to be now!
Her family are sick with worry and they are appealing etc but it is a disgusting state of affairs. When this lady married it was at the time the spouse of a U.K. national could live with them in U.K. - the goalposts have changed!

Bananas thrown onto football pitches and monkey noises made when there was a black player? Not so long ago. The context of this situation is black people who have lived here for decades - any comments made about ‘homelands’ is within that context. And why is your post so disrespectful throwing in the word ‘green’ - do you think this is a serious subject or not? Hostile environment - is that a neutral term or not? The programmes on the TV at the moment about SL - gosh aren’t we cuddly? Present day comments made by a former policeman? The racist abuse that DA gets daily? Nah - I’ve no idea what racism means and the way it is deeply entrenched into our society.

Do you remember the get back to the jungle comments of the past Joelsnan? I can remember this frequently being shouted after black people legitimately walking through London streets in the 1960s and 70s.
Do you think they were racist comments? As what you’re saying sounds very similar.

-It’s a side show Joel and doesn’t detract from the main issue - but nice try at victim blaming. Return to their ‘homelands’ after 50/60/70 years - do you even begin to understand the racist overtones in that phrase? I guess not.-

Maryeliza54 there you go again with the misappropriate racist commen.
The statement made could refer to any immigrant black, white, green or whatever who has chosen to retain the passport of their birth country and could feasibly return to that country if they chose to do so.
You do the term Racist a disservice.

David Lammy:

In 2004 Theresa May said "I find it extraordinary that a Minister isn’t willing just to step up to the plate and take responsibility... I’m actually sick and tired of Government Ministers who simply blame other people when something goes wrong".

I agree.

One of the men at least who was having problems it was because he could not prove when he arrived as a baby - the destroyed documentation.

Illegal means without documentation, as we now know happened to the Windrush immigrants.

I think they have got caught up in it though.
It might be better to put resources onto finding ways to repatriate people who have committed serious crimes when they are released from prison.