Windrush scandal caused by ‘30 years of racist immigration laws’ – report & More News Here

The origins of the Windrush scandal lay in 30 years of racist immigration laws designed to scale back the UK’s non-white inhabitants, in accordance with a leaked authorities report.

The stark conclusion was set out in a Home Office commissioned paper that officers have repeatedly tried to suppress over the previous yr.

The 52-page evaluation by an unnamed historian, which has been seen by the Guardian, describes how “the British Empire depended on racist ideology in order to function”, and units out how this affected the legal guidelines handed within the postwar interval.

It concludes that the origins of the “deep-rooted racism of the Windrush scandal” lie in the truth that “during the period 1950-1981, every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK”.

It finds that the scandal was caused by a failure to recognise that modifications to British immigration legislation over the previous 70 years had a extra adverse influence on black folks than on different racial and ethnic teams.

“As a result, the experiences of Britain’s black communities of the Home Office, of the law, and of life in the UK have been fundamentally different from those of white communities,” the report states. “Major immigration legislation in 1962, 1968 and 1971 was designed to reduce the proportion of people living in the United Kingdom who did not have white skin.”

It was not clear why officers had been reluctant to launch the doc. Diane Abbott MP, who tried with out success to have the paper launched by means of the house affairs choose committee, mentioned the Home Office seemed to be “unwilling to acknowledge the racism that has disfigured British immigration policy for decades”.

The report was commissioned by the Home Office as half of a dedication to educating civil servants concerning the causes of the Windrush scandal, which noticed 1000’s of folks wrongly labeled as unlawful immigrants by the division. After the scandal, ministers agreed to show all 35,000 Home Office staff about Britain’s colonial historical past and the historical past of black Britons.

The report, named “The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal”, focuses on the immigration laws of the twentieth century, somewhat than on more moderen occasions, corresponding to the consequences of the hostile surroundings insurance policies launched by Theresa May when she was dwelling secretary.

The unnamed Home Office historian writes: “The British Empire depended on racist ideology in order to function, which in turn produced legislation aimed at keeping racial and ethnic groups apart … From the beginning, concern about Commonwealth immigration was about skin colour.” In the Fifties, British officers shared a “basic assumption that ‘coloured immigrants’, as they were referred to, were not good for British society,” the report states.

The doc summarises a long time of “dysfunctional relationships between Britain’s institutions and Black and minority ethnic people”, and concludes: “The politics of Britain’s borders, which have been administered for more than a century by the Home Office, are now inextricably connected with race and with Britain’s colonial history.”

Wendy Williams, the unbiased inspector advising the Home Office on what modifications to make after Windrush, mentioned in March that she was “disappointed” the report had not been revealed a yr after officers had signed off on it. It has been made out there to employees internally, however requests for it to be made public have been repeatedly rejected.

A freedom of info request concerning the doc was refused. Acknowledging that the topic was “a matter of legitimate public interest” and that “openness and transparency” had been essential, the request was however rejected on the grounds that the Home Office’s response to the Windrush scandal included “sensitive issues involving the development of policies”. Publication of the doc might “inhibit discussions and the ability of ministers to take free and frank advice”.

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Immigration historians mentioned it was peculiar to suppress a piece of historical past that was funded by the taxpayer. There was hypothesis over whether or not the report was withheld internally for a yr as a result of its conclusions had been at odds with the federal government’s narrative on race. Last yr, Tony Sewell’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report on race mentioned there was no proof to recommend that Britain was an institutionally racist place. Last month, the prime minister advised parliament: “For centuries, our United Kingdom has had a proud history of welcoming people from overseas.”

Simon Woolley, the previous CEO of Operation Black Vote and chair of the No 10 race disparity unit July 2020, mentioned the refusal to make the report public was “shameful”. “The government is hellbent in its denial of the systemic nature of racial inequality and in this climate historical facts have become uncomfortable truths that need to be hidden,” he mentioned.

The report additionally cites a letter from the prime minister of the Federation of the West Indies, Sir Grantley Adams, to the Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan. Sir Grantley protested that “Britain has begun to take steps which are no different in kind to the basis on which the system of apartheid in South Africa is based” by introducing the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act.

Juanita Cox, a analysis fellow with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, engaged on a Windrush scandal analysis venture, mentioned: “If they admitted the Home Office’s legislation pre-1981 was institutionally racist, current legislation might also come under scrutiny and be found to be even worse. Britain’s immigration system is at complete odds with the proud image it portrays of welcoming immigrants.”

Immigration barrister Grace Brown, who has acted for a quantity of Windrush victims, mentioned the fallout from the laws was nonetheless being felt. “There’s no justifiable reason why the continuing and long-lasting effect on individuals of historic discriminatory legislation and policy shouldn’t be addressed and corrected today,” she mentioned.

A Home Office spokesperson mentioned the division wouldn’t title the historian who wrote the historical past, including that the Home Office was making progress in direction of “becoming a more compassionate and open organisation.”

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