Thousands of citizens from the UK face the threat of deportation and worse after living here for more than 50 years.
The 'Windrush Generation' are thousands of people who travelled from predominately the Caribbean and other Commonwealth countries via the MV Empire Windrush and thousands more following between the time period of 1948-1975. This was to help rebuild Britain following WW2 and for some to leave their home for better work and lives.
Now more than 50 years later, in the year of the 70th Anniversary of the Commonwealth, many citizens face deportation threats from the Home Office and have been denied access to benefits and travel back into the country because they have to provide evidence of their British Citizenship.
The 2011 Office for National Statistics, Census collected data on people living in England Wales. The information was the following:
- The country people were born in
- When they arrived in the UK
- Do you hold a passport (2018)
Once the data was translated and placed into graphs it became a lot easier to distinguish who didn’t have a passport from the Windrush generation in 2011 and then determine who is at risk of deportation.
Figures showed that by 2011 there were 599,078 people in England and Wales who were born in Commonwealth countries, who had come before 1971. Out of that number, 90% of these people (541, 616) held a UK passport and around 6% (34,447) held passports from other Commonwealth countries. But 3.5 (21,053) didn’t have a passport. The 6% were all around the England and Wales, however, there was a high concentration in London.
This data allows us to understand where these members of the Windrush Generation went, particularly from Caribbean countries which is the basis of the scandal. However, what the data doesn’t reveal is where in the Caribbean, which leaves room for non-Commonwealth islands who were not covered by the UK’s Windrush policy after the Second World War. It can be assumed that those numbers are very small because it was only Commonwealth citizens who were invited over. What doesn’t help was the destruction of the landing cards, initiated in 2009 by the UK Border Agency but weren’t disposed of till 2010 following the administrative decision was taken by the UK Border Agency who were under legal obligations to do so under the Data Protection Act 1998.
The Figures also show that by 2011, there were 144,395 people in England and Wales who were born in the Caribbean who arrived before 1971. A staggering 92% held a UK passport while 5% held non-UK passports. 3.6% (5,193) of these people did not have a passport at the time.
What we can take from all this data is having a passport clearly proves one’s citizenship. Other forms of documentation such as a certificate of entitlement could also be used. The fundamental problem from this is not all cases can be looked at the same, and whilst not having a passport paints a big target on your back, it isn’t clear these people had an alternative form of documentation at the time. In addition to this, we live in an uncodified constitution governed country, making it a lot easier for laws to be amended and changed which also hasn’t helped since Immigration Laws have only become stricter as the years have gone by, especially post 2012.
We can also consider that these statistics are slightly outdated, this being the fact that many people’s passports may have run out years after 2011. Also the Census data provided by ONS only provide us figures of individual who arrived in the UK before 1971, the Windrush Generation is deemed to have started in 1948, so anyone before then, even by a mere year won’t have been recorded and if they had been there’s a high chance that their documentation has been destroyed with the landing cards.
To conclude, these figures, unfortunately, give us a basis and that only of the Windrush Generation. It misses out on a minimum of 7-10 years of vital data. What it does, however, is raise further questions about the government’s decision to destroy the Windrush landing cards. Sadly, if the decision had been postponed only a year, there is a possibility the government would’ve discovered 21,053 people from the Commonwealth who came here in the Windrush generation who don’t have a passport.
It would’ve saved a lot of time and may have stopped the scandal before it started, resulting in lives not being ruined and severed, Home Secretary having the resign and overall would’ve allowed the 70th Anniversary of the Commonwealth to be celebrated the way it should’ve bringing people closer and uniting rather that denying the right of stay, here in the UK.
