- Conference
- 2023 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 14 June 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Justice for the Windrush Generation
Conference is extremely concerned at the continuing detriment suffered by retired members (or their heirs) who migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1950’s and 1960s, mostly from the Caribbean, who comprise the “Windrush Generation named after the ship, Empire Windrush which sailed from Jamaica to the UK exactly seventy five years ago.
The discrimination people of the Windrush Generation suffered through harassment and wrongful deportation by the Home Office was comprehensively detailed by the independent review Wendy Williams in he “Windrush Lessons Learned “ review in March 2020. That report was accepted by the then Home Secretary who promised “unequivocal support” for all of the report’s recommendations.
Earlier this year, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, arbitrarily decided that the Home Office could disregard three of the report’s recommendations. These are:
• Reconciliation events with those affected by the scandal
• The appointment of a Migrants’ Commissioner., and
• The appointment of an Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
Conference believes that, by abandoning these commitments, the government has fundamentally undermined the first principle of the Lessons Learned review which emphasised the need for sincerity in any apology.
Conference applauds UNISON’s continuing campaign to reverse this decision of the Home Office and the calling out of the shockingly slow progress made by that office in compensating victims of their injustice, addressing historic wrongs and changing their own culture which has treated so many people wrongly. Even the Compensation Scheme cannot be accessed without the victims facing further scrutiny, heavy evidential demands, applications placed into a bureaucratic limbo, and even when addressed, treated with scepticism. Too many of the Windrush Generation feel that this is nit restorative justice, just more of the same….
Conference calls on the National Retired members Committee to:
1)Campaign for recommendations in Wendy Williams Lessons Learned review to be implemented in full
2)Work with the National Executive Council and other appropriate bodies within UNISON to publicise the continuing discrimination against the Windrush Generation and seek full and proper restorative justice for those wrongly harmed by the Home Office over the past 75 years.
Islington Local Government Retired Members Group