THE HOME Office is ‘institutionally racist’. This is the verdict of the first draft of the ‘lessons learned’ review by Wendy Williams, HM Inspector of Constabulary into the Windrush scandal. This was revealed in a leak that came to light yesterday.
The accusation that the Home Office is ‘institutionally racist’ is purged from more recent drafts, including the latest version, meaning that there has been continual political intervention to try to protect the government. The final version of the review is yet to be published.
The ‘independent’ review is investigating the scandal where the government was responsible for detaining and deporting people who came over from the Caribbean as children and lived and worked in the UK their entire life.
The fact the phrase ‘institutionally racist’ was included in an early draft of the review’s findings and no longer appears in the latest version, proves that the entire review is an attempt at a complete and utter whitewash of the government’s conduct!
Labour MP David Lammy demanded yesterday that the ‘truth must be published in full’. He said: ‘The Windrush scandal resulted in the systematic deportation and detention of black British citizens by the UK Home Office. The victims’ nationality and rights were denied because of the colour of their skin. If this is not institutionally racist I have no idea what is.
‘It would be an outrage and an insult to the Windrush generation for Wendy Williams’ independent review to be watered down for political reasons.’
The first leak from the ‘lessons learned’ review said that the government should stop the deportation of people who came over from the Caribbean as children, committed an offence here, and were subsequently deported.
Despite this leak, the Tory government earlier in the month attempted to proceed with a mass deportation flight of 42 people to the Caribbean in what was dubbed ‘Windrush scandal 2’.
There were angry demonstrations outside Downing Street demanding the deportation flight be stopped. Over 150 MPs and members of the House of Lords wrote an open letter warning of the dangers of repeating the Windrush scandal.
The letter stated: ‘Two years ago the Windrush crisis shook the country. In a violation of human rights, the government was found to have been detaining and deporting British citizens and those who had the right to live in the UK for decades.’
The letter said the government should halt the deportations at least until a review into the Windrush scandal has been published. When it emerged that the majority of those being detained did not even have access to legal advice, judges blocked the deportation.
It is a disgrace that the flight however still went ahead with 17 of the planned 42 people on board. The Windrush generation and their children played a vital role in rebuilding the UK after the 1939-45 war.
With the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 masses of nurses and staff were needed. Thousands of men, women and their children came over from the Caribbean on ships such as the Empire Windrush to work in the NHS and the transport system, which at the time was still a nationalised, publicly owned service. They were welcomed and urged to stay on to build a new life for themselves in England as they helped rebuild it after the war.
It never occurred to them that they would need to keep their landing cards to prove that they had come to the UK legally. Then, in 2010 the Home Office burned the landing cards, the evidence of their legal arrival. Former PM May is responsible. She was Home Secretary at the time. She created the ‘hostile environment’ now being carried on by Tory PM Johnson – this time directed against their children!
The Home Office has had to admit that at least 63 members of the Windrush generation have been wrongly deported to the Caribbean. The number is in reality much higher.
Capitalism by its very nature is racist. The Tories have no intention of ‘learning lessons’. It is the working class which will teach this government a lesson, by ending the ‘hostile environment’ by bringing down the Tories and going forward to a workers
government.