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The Windrush scandal had its origins in laws that were specifically designed to strip Black and Asian people of their rights to live in the UK, according to a new report.
The Conservative government refused to publish the report in 2022 but, following a decision by a tribunal judge last year, the Labour administration today published it in full.
The report, The Historical Roots Of The Windrush Scandal, concludes that the scandal was the culmination of three decades of racist immigration laws designed to reduce the UK’s non-white population and disenfranchise Black people.
It highlights that the “deep-rooted racism of the Windrush scandal” is a result of government policies designed to reduce the proportion of people living in the United Kingdom who did not have white skin – specifically major immigration legislation in 1962, 1968 and 1971.
“Every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with Black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK,” the report reads.
It adds: “The Windrush Scandal was caused by a failure to recognise that changes in immigration and citizenship law in Britain since 1948 had affected Black people in the UK differently than they had other racial and ethnic groups.
“As a result, the experiences of Britain’s Black communities of the Home Office, of the law, and of life in the UK have been fundamentally different from those of white communities.”
It says the relationship between the Home Office and organisations set up to deal with race relations was dysfunctional in the second half of the 20th century.
“The work of various governmental bodies in combatting discrimination in the UK was separate from the task given to the Home Office to reduce immigration,” it says.
“This led to a paradoxical situation in which immigration policy assumed that too many immigrants from a minority ethnic background were bad for society, but race relations policy promoted the idea of racial equality.”
The Home Office, under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government at the time, with Priti Patel as Home Secretary, refused to publish despite requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
It argued that publication may result in communities’ trust in government being negatively impacted.
However, a tribunal judgement declared last September that the department must disclose the report to the requester, while the new Labour government decided instead to publish the report in its entirety.
Responding to the report’s publication, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said: “This proves what we all know: this country’s immigration system is fundamentally racist to its very core.
“Instead of trying to suppress this report, the government must completely dismantle this racist system and start actually listening to Black and brown communities.”
Jacqueline McKenzie, a prominent human rights lawyer who represents Windrush scandal victims, is calling upon the new Labour government to take further action, saying it “must address the Windrush scandal of which there remain thousands of victims in the UK and overseas”.
This included raising greater awareness of the schemes available and ensuring that justice be swiftly delivered to those affected.
The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in Britain.
Many lost homes and jobs, as well as being denied access to healthcare and benefits.
Following the report’s publication, Home Office minister Seema Malhotra said: “Greater transparency from the Home Office will be accompanied by a commitment to listen and learn. For too long you have gone unheard, but that will not happen on my watch.
“As the home secretary did in opposition, we will continue to meet with victims, families, and stakeholders from the outset. As a department, we need to hear from communities first hand if we are to deliver on our promises to the Windrush generation for a fundamental reset, with respect and dignity at its very core.
“As a government, we are determined to make good on the commitments we made in opposition to reviewing the Home Office’s continued response, by ensuring the compensation scheme is delivered effectively and that lasting cultural change is embedded across the department.”
Home secretary Yvette Cooper will outline the first steps she has set for the department to “build trust and deliver the change” owed to the Windrush generation and the country, Ms Malhotra added.
Separate figures published by the Home Office on Thursday show that of the 868 Windrush compensation scheme claims that were still being processed at the end of August, 135 (16 per cent) had been in the system for at least 12 months.
This proportion is broadly unchanged since recent months but is up from 12 per cent in October 2023.
