Written by, Rosemary Palmer
The Windrush, Lessons learned report, published on 19 March 2020, calls for clarification and reduction of complexity of all immigration procedures. The report consistently stresses the need for accountability throughout all levels of responsibility whether exercised by employed , elected or selected personnel. To ensure that affected members of the community are protected according to their rights in the codes and declarations adopted by the UK, statistical and individual records must be archived, up-dated and available to all participants, the report acknowledges. The skills and sensitivities required to achieve fairness and equality can only be ensured by ongoing training in line with mission statements and timely evaluations of Home Office and Border Force procedures. The report supports the development of posts and tribunes to arbitrate the impositions of the hostile environment, now referred to as the compliant environment.
Whilst carefully acknowledging the economic loss suffered by persons who were “wrongfully deported”, the report underplays the social and psychological effects of their trauma. It does not address the negative impact on weaker national economies of ”the enforcement of laws intended to apply to foreign offenders” P15 with whom the former category was conflated. In short, whilst wishing to strengthen the risk management strategies available to the Home Office by increasing the status and integrity of its procedures and appeal routes, the administrative measures suggested by the report are not innovative. Critical to future improvements in the pursuance of human rights is the expectation that more BAME officers will be appointed and that those in post already are likely to be screened for promotion to key decision making roles. This does not modify “the scandal…of…profound institutional failure”p10, which, the report admits has “posed, and to continues to pose, a substantial risk of causing the Windrush generation… to be treated both less favourably and suffer [more] detriment” P11 than those born in the UK, those who are non-Caribbean, or those who arrived outside of the time frame 1948-1973.
The Green Party has a role to play in querying institutional racism, a charge belatedly withdrawn from the document but attested to both by many similar investigations and by laboured and convoluted phrases to avoid it in The Windrush Lessons Learned Report. The party can promote an educational strategy for including the historical segment of the report in schools’ curricula. The opportunity exists for Greens of Colour to collect contact details of stakeholders and examples of inequality on data bases for the use of local and national representatives. The themes of individual dignity and international respect can be detailed through the pages of the Windrush evidence and applied to the ideological problem of racism as much as to the topical issue that has overwhelmed this discussion: the Covid19 isolation measures. I submit this report for your considered attention,
Rosemary Palmer
Greens of Colour, member of Jamaica Diaspora UK, dual national Jamaica/UK