NEWS ARTICLE
Source: Morgan King, Liverpool Echo
The Windrush commissioner is holding a community listening event at Central Library tomorrow, April 25
The independent Windrush commissioner, the Rev Clive Foster MBE, has called on survivors of the Home Office Windrush scandal and their descendants to “come and tell their story” at a community listening event in Liverpool Central Library tomorrow, Saturday, April 25.
The Office of the Windrush Commissioner, which was created last year to hold the Government to account on its implementation of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, has held similar events in cities around the UK with the aim of ensuring the voices of affected communities are at the heart of the office’s advocacy.
Rev Foster told the ECHO: “The Windrush scandal is still live, and why it’s important that we have a session like we’re having in Liverpool is that there will be support given, there will be other organisations there that can relate to the problems people are having, and we can take those stories into real change.
“That’s what I’ve done in the past, and that’s why these listening events are really important to hold.”
The Windrush scandal, which first made the news in November 2017, resulted in the resignation of then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd after it emerged she had misled Parliament over deportation targets set by the Conservative government – which had led to many Windrush migrants (who legally arrived in the UK before 1973 from nations that were formerly part of the Empire and Commonwealth, particularly Caribbean countries) being threatened with deportation.
Many of these people were wrongly detained, denied legal rights and access to health and welfare services, and at least 83 were wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office.
Previous community listening events, the most recent in Birmingham in January, have seen attendees raise concerns around the difficulties accessing legal support for compensation claims under the scheme first announced in December 2018.
A primary concern of the commissioner’s office is to provide assurance on the Home Office’s delivery of this scheme, including for survivors who are now overseas as a result of the scandal.
Rev Foster said: “My role is to scrutinise the Government and to take those stories that we’re hearing into the heart of government in terms of the ministers and Home Office officials to drive change.
“And that’s why we’ve already done that by making the claims of elderly survivors now a priority. We’ve also asked for those who have suffered losses in pensions that they get fully compensated, and those who are going through a review get advance payments.
“But there are still issues. Nearly six in 10 claims still result in what we call a zero or nil award and sadly, some 66 people have died without receiving justice.
“So the urgency is still there and the need for compassionate urgency and pushing that every survivor gets justice is still imperative.”
Liverpool is home to one of the oldest Windrush communities in Britain. The SS Ormonde transported 241 passengers from Jamaica to Liverpool in 1947, a year before the HMT Empire Windrush made land at the Port of Tilbury in Essex to far greater media attention.
Rev Foster told the ECHO: “Every city will have its own response, but I recognise Liverpool is a city that is diverse and a city that is not averse to understanding the importance of seeking justice on an institutional level, when we think of [things like] the Hillsborough disaster.
“But I’m not making any assumptions. This is an opportunity where you can come and speak to myself as the Windrush commissioner, to advocates, to the adjudicator team that also provides support, and to hear what kind of potential support could be available.
“This is open for anyone to attend, even if you don’t have a claim around compensation. But it’s important as well that, even if you’re just concerned about injustice, that you see this as an opportunity where you can come and hear, to see what needs to be done going forward.
“People’s voices matter. People’s voices can deliver change.”
Evoking Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’, the commissioner warned against complacency in the light of heightened tensions and political discourse around immigration eight years on from the scandal.
Rev Foster said: “Justice never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. We have to have active, intentional work to safeguard that this never happens again.”
He added: “The independent report that was done by Wendy Williams on the Windrush scandal said that the scandal was foreseeable, and it should have been preventable.
“So, given where we are now, it is important to say that the scandal emerged out of successive governments, and there needs to be a real intention that the lessons that we’ve learnt from Windrush do not happen again.
“And that’s why, whatever people are experiencing now – whether they are navigating complex immigration laws, changes to the nationality bill, ID cards – I want to be hearing from you: what are your concerns? What are you nervous about?
“Because what is at stake here is that we could be creating a situation where the most vulnerable people – as a result of policy changes – are the ones who are harmed. That cannot happen again.”
The commissioner stressed that Saturday “is not a Home Office event” and assured community members who may feel unsure about attending that it will be a “safe, secure space”.
Rev Foster told the ECHO: “I want to hear from people directly, and there will be other people there who are of that same persuasion locally who are acting as advocates, whether that’s the Liverpool Advocates for Windrush [the event’s co-hosts] or members of my team who are lived-experience workers who’ll be there to listen and support.
“And I want to say clearly to anyone who’s nervous: even if you don’t have a claim open – you don’t need documents, you don’t need a polished story – just come and share and listen, and we will push for change.”
Windrush Voices (Liverpool): From Harm to Repair will take place at Liverpool Central Library from 10am to 2pm on Sat, April 25. It is free to attend – with the option of attending online – and those interested in attending can reserve a spot here.