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A message from a Jamaican-born Briton on Windrush Day · Global Voices

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‘British colonial history is a big part of British history’

The Windrush generation arrived from 1948 – Green plaque in the city of Westminster at Paddington Station. Photo by Spudgun67 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

June 22 is Windrush Day in the United Kingdom and marks the contributions of hundreds of economic migrants from the Black Caribbean who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948.

However, these contributions were accompanied by struggle. West Indians coming to the ‘motherland’ were not exactly welcomed, not only by the weather, but also by white British who resisted this emerging multiracial society. Despite promises of economic opportunity, they found it difficult to find jobs and housing, and were often treated as social outcasts.

To make matters worse, 70 years after the first generation of the Windrush generation arrived in Britain, a political controversy emerged, called the Windrush Scandal, in which this older generation of immigrants were harassed, deprived of benefits and was even deported due to the hostile attitude of the Ministry of the Interior. anti-migrant environmental policy, first drafted in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal-Democratic coalition.

Changes to British immigration rules – overseen by then Home Secretary and later Prime Minister Theresa May – placed the burden of proof on members of the Windrush generation to demonstrate that they had the right to remain in Britain. However, the landing cards issued upon their arrival that could have provided such evidence were destroyed by the Ministry of the Interior in 2010.

Despite tributes being paid to this generation of immigrants with the unveiling of a £1 million Windrush memorial at Waterloo Station, the injustices exposed in the 2018 Windrush scandal and the myriad ways in which the government has bungled the revelations was made worse last June, the 75th anniversary of the Windrush’s arrival. Previously secret documents revealed that hundreds of Windrush immigrants, ill with long-term physical or mental conditions, had been returned to the Caribbean between the 1950s and the early 1970s, even though their departure had been voluntary.

The ongoing fiasco has led to calls for a public inquiry into the country’s repatriation policy and this year Sidney McFarlane, the Jamaican-born Royal Air Force Squadron Leader, took to the political activism account X (formerly Twitter) run by Donkeys to take out a message for the British Prime Minister. Minister Rishi Sunak and Opposition Leader Keir Starmer:

In it he talked about his experiences as a black immigrant in Great Britain from the 1950s, both within the Royal Air Force and beyond. “The Windrush scandal,” he says, “is about people like me who answered the call to come and help the mother country rebuild this place after the Second World War.”

He added that people do not understand that the Windrush generation ended up in Britain as British citizens and that “we are now being treated as illegal immigrants.”

In his testimony, McFarlane revealed that he had recently given a talk on Windrush; Surprisingly, not many people had heard of it and those who had were under the mistaken impression that the problem had been solved. “It’s not over yet,” McFarlane explained, “and people are still suffering.”

Mc Farlane drew parallels with the British Post Office scandal of 1999-2015, in which thousands of innocent sub-postmasters were accused of – and served a prison sentence for – financial impropriety that was actually caused by a flawed accounting software system. Although the Ministry of the Interior is waiting for people to become extinct because it has been dragging on for so long that we are losing people.”

Courts began overturning verdicts related to the Post Office scandal in 2021, but it was not until 2024 that the British Parliament passed a law overturning the convictions – a 25-year gap from the start of the debacle. In the case of Windrush, it’s been a lot longer when you consider that people have been sent back since the 1950s – and now, according to McFarlane, “they’ve made (the process) so complicated that the ordinary layman has great difficulty accessing compensation .”

The final solution, he said, lies in appointing “an independent body to take (the issue) away from the Ministry of Interior and let the government implement its own recommendations.”

With the next general election in Britain scheduled for July 4, McFarlane ended his message by saying: “Whoever forms the next government, I am hopeful that (…) I will live long enough to see compensation being paid.”

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Another replied:

McFarlane also believed that the school curriculum should be changed so that the younger generations can be better informed. After all, he argued that “British colonial history is a big part of British history.” A few teachers responded that they would make sure their students learned about Windrush, with one adding: “They know (and) understand how wrong this was.”

Online reactions to the video were largely supportive, with some saying Britain was made stronger by the arrival of the Windrush generation – although one commentator asked: “Who invited the Windrush here? Wasn’t that the British people; We were not asked, it never happened.”

X user Adam Bateman replied: “The Windrush generation answered the call when it came, every time it came. They all dedicated themselves to the service of Britain, and in return we betrayed them. A stain on all of us that made their sacrifices forgotten.”

A grandchild of a Windrush member added: “Their resilience and ambition deserve respect.” Another X user admitted that Mc Farlane’s “quiet dignity” and “life of service to this country that then betrayed him (…) brought tears to my eyes. (…) Let’s hope he gets to see the conclusion of the trial.”

As one commentator succinctly put it: “Windrush people are (British), plain and simple.”

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