When the ship the Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury in 1948 it sparked an influx of migrants from the Caribbean, but a government scandal rocked the sons and daughters of workers who helped rebuild post-war Britain
Brits are today celebrating Windrush Day, despite an ongoing scandal in which people were wrongly deported from the UK.
The day celebrates when black immigrants from the Caribbean migrated to the UK in search of work, filling the huge labour shortages left after World War 2.
This year’s Windrush Day is marking 74 years since Caribbean immigrants arrived in the UK and a new statue, funded to the tune of £1 million, has been unveiled at Waterloo Station.
Windrush is an important landmark in recent British history and changed the UK forever.
The History Press notes: “The image of West Indians filing off the ship’s gangplank is often used to symbolise the beginning of modern British multicultural society.”
However, with ongoing scandals including the Home Office’s lack of payments to those owed compensation, some argue the day is an important reminder of what still needs to be improved.
What was Windrush?
The term ‘Windrush generation’ now comes from the ship seen as symbol of immigrants who came over to fill vacant jobs left after millions of people were killed in World War 2
The Empire Windrush was a passenger ship that transported Caribbean immigrants to the UK in a highly publicised event on June 22, 1948.
She was originally a German passenger liner launched in 1930 and named MV Monte Rosa and was used by Germany as a troop ship during the Second World War.
The British took possession of her in as a prize of war after the conflict ended, renaming her the Empire Windrush in 1947.
The British Nationality Act was passed in 1948, allowing for a wave of immigration to reach British shores and between 1948 to 1970, nearly half a million people left their homes in the Caribbean to live in the UK.
The act essentially changed how people were defined as British citizens, meaning it was easier for people in what were then colonies to claim the right to work and bring over their families to the UK.
The ship was going to be sailing fairly empty from Jamaica’s capital Kingston, so an advert was put out asking for anyone who wanted to take advantage of cheap passage to come and work in England.
The invite was put out as England faced huge labour shortages in the wake of the war and was desperate for help to rebuild shattered infrastructure and get public services running again. A total of 492 people took up the offer and headed to the UK.
This generation became known as the ‘Windrush generation’ after the ship that sparked the influx.
What was the Windrush scandal?
The Windrush scandal occurred when thousands of people were suddenly forced to try and prove they were in the UK legally, decades after arriving legally.
New legislation was passed in 2012 under then-Home Secretary Thersa May with the purpose of making it impossible for undocumented immigrants to live in the UK.
However, children of Windrush immigrants who arrived after hearing the calls of labour shortages suddenly found they were unable to prove they had lived in the UK before 1973. Suddenly, people who had lived in the UK for nearly all of their lives were deemed illegal immigrants.
It was also revealed in 2018 that landing cards that would have proved the arrival of immigrants had been destroyed in what was described as an office move.
The government eventually apologised in 2018 and admitted Caribbean immigrants may have been deported “in error”. They set up a task force to grant fee-free citizenship, as well as a compensation scheme.
Then Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Frankly some of the way they have been treated has been wrong, has been appalling, and I am sorry.”
The Guardian recently revealed around 15,000 people claimed a compensation payment after they were wrongly classed as illegal immigrants by the Home Office, but only 7% of claimants have received payment.
In one heartbreaking case, a man who arrived in Britain in 1958 aged 15 months told the Mirror in 2018 told how he was barred from attending his mum’s funeral in the UK.
An application Junior Green submitted to prove he had lived in the UK was rejected – and after he travelled to Jamaica to be with his dying mother in 2017, he says he was not allowed on the return flight to the UK.
His mother’s body was repatriated to Britain, but by the time he got back, her funeral had already happened.
Early hardships of the Windrush generation
Even before the Windrush arrived at Tilbury dock in June 1948, intense national debate had struck up over whether to welcome the new arrivals.
According to understandingslavery.com Sam England, a former RAF officer who was onboard the ship, said: “As soon as we got to England there was great apprehension on the boat because we knew there was a national debate in Britain as to whether the boat would be allowed to dock.”
When those first passengers disembarked the Windrush they were housed in the Clapham South deep shelter, a cavernous and dank tunnel dug as a bomb shelter in the war.
Many of them settled in nearby Brixton, as it was the site of the nearest labour exchange – as job centres were then known.
Although Caribbeans were encouraged by British Government campaigns to come over to England, and many found work with the NHS, British Rail and public transport, the new migrants were met with a wave of prejudice and sometimes outright hostility.
Back in the Caribbean these men and women had been taught that they were English too, so many were shocked at the negative treatment they received from the white population when they arrived.
Many had trouble finding accommodation and were not able to open a bank account or get a mortgage.
People were forced to establish their own organisations – such as the West Indian Standing Conference – which championed their interests in the community.
After the war there was a housing shortage in the UK and this led to the first clashes between the incomers and the white population. These clashes were often violent and led to riots in the 1950s in London, Birmingham and Nottingham.
The most famous of these were the 1958 Notting Hill riots, when two weeks of violence plagued the area in London. In response to the riots a ‘Caribbean carnival’ was set up in 1959, which is still going strong as the Notting Hill Carnival.