Windrush archives destroyed by Home Office

Theresa May has apologised for the treatment that has threatened the Windrush Generation, leading to many living in the shadow, undocumented with the possibility of deportation.

Whilst the PM was busy apologising, behind the scenes the scandalous stories just kept on coming.

The Guardian has revealed that the Home Office, destroyed a Windrush archive containing thousands of landing card slips recording arrival details to the UK.

An anonymous ex-Home Office employee said:

It was decided in 2010 to destroy the disembarkation cards, which dated back to the 1950s and 60s, when the Home Office’s Whitgift Centre in Croydon was closed and the staff were moved to another site. Employees in his department told their managers it was a bad idea, because these papers were often the last remaining record of a person’s arrival date, in the event of uncertainty or lost documents. The files were destroyed in October that year, when Theresa May was home secretary.

After the archive was destroyed people from the West Indies, increasingly found it impossible to prove when they arrived in the UK.

Theresa May, who was responsible for leading the introduction of hostile policies between 2010 and 2016 apologised earlier today, in front of 12 heads of government from the West Indies:

“I want to apologise to you today, because we are genuinely sorry for any anxiety that has been caused”

Just when you thought that it couldn’t get any more shameful for the Home Office, a guide has been unearthed which drags the government down to a new low. The guide was meant to help localise deportees by providing advice such as ‘Try to be Jamaican’ (yes, you read that correctly) and ‘use local accents and dialect’.

In reaction to this guide, David Lammy, Labour MP said:

“How exactly can someone pretend to ‘be Jamaican’ when they are British and have lived here all their lives?”

The Windrush generation have been on the frontline as soft targets, harassed, detained and deported, unjustly by the Home Office. It’s a sacrifice that has woken the public up to how people have been treated as a result of the hostile environment; which is not exclusive to the Windrush generation but other commonwealth and EU citizens are too reminded. We will remember the Windrush generation as the unfortunate pioneers on the receiving end of this callous policy.

Assorted links (Windrush related),

Home Office destroyed Windrush landing cards, says ex-staffer
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David Goodwin has been blogging since 2010 and is the author of Blog on the Block where he covers civic & social topics. Goodwin hosts the podcast, Pod on the Block. He is the founder and company director of user experience consultancy Uxfam Ltd.

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