This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first arrivals

A report by George Willoughby for The Times of London.

On June 22 it will be 75 years since HMT Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury, Essex. On board were 492 passengers from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands travelling to London to help fill postwar labour shortages. They arrived in the hope of a new life after changes to British immigration law allowed them to stay without documents.

However, in 2018 a political scandal emerged. The government had not properly kept the records for those who were granted permission to stay in the UK and many were wrongly deported, stripped of their rights to live and work and could not access housing or healthcare.

Who were the Windrush generation?

The name comes from the ship HMT Empire Windrush which travelled thousands of miles, carrying the first large group of Caribbean migrants to the UK after the Second World War.

Under the British Nationality Act 1948, people on board, many of them children, were granted the right to settle in the UK.

Under the act, those who migrated could settle indefinitely in the country without restrictions and did not need documents on arrival.

People who were born in Caribbean countries and settled in the UK between 1948 and 1971 are now widely referred to as the Windrush generation. It is unclear exactly how many people this includes but the number is thought to be in the thousands.

What was the Windrush scandal?

In 2018 it emerged that Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were from the Windrush generation, had been wrongly denied legal rights, detained and threatened with deportation from the UK by the Home Office.

The Conservative government introduced “hostile environment” legislation in the early 2010s which tasked the NHS, landlords, banks, employers and many others with enforcing immigration controls.

The Home Office demanded at least one official document from every year that people had lived in the country. It ultimately made the UK unliveable for undocumented migrants and pushed them to leave.

Many of the Windrush generation fell foul of the new rules, which forced them to show evidence to continue working, get NHS treatment and even stay in the country.

A compensation scheme, which has been running since 2018, was intended to “right the wrongs” of the Windrush scandal but there is still a large backlog of cases.

Why did the Windrush scandal happen?

Commonwealth citizens already residing in the UK were given indefinite leave to remain under the Immigration Act 1971. It gave people the permanent right to live and work.

However, the Home Office did not keep any record or paperwork of those granted leave to remain. As a result, it became increasingly difficult for Windrush arrivals to prove their legal status.

Many of the Windrush generation arrived as children on their parents’ passports. Without their landing cards, which were destroyed by the government, and other records, most lacked suitable documentation to prove their right to remain in the UK.

Falsely deemed as illegal immigrants, people started to lose access to their bank accounts, driving licences and housing. Many were also prevented from travelling abroad or placed in immigration detention, and some deported back to countries they had last seen when they were children.

What impact has Windrush had on today’s society?

The Windrush generation and their descendants have had a big impact on cultural and social life in Britain.

Many of the early arrivals joined the newly formed NHS and were fundamental in shaping the health service by sharing their skills. Others became manual labourers, construction workers, cleaners and drivers, setting the foundations for postwar Britain.

They also brought Caribbean culture to arts, sport, music and food, all of which have become part of British culture.

Members and descendants of the Windrush generation who have gone on to hold public office in the UK include Sam Beaver King, who arrived at Tilbury in his twenties and became the first black mayor of Southwark — London’s only black mayor at the time — and Diane Abbott, the first black woman elected to parliament. Other notable contributors to British life and culture include the cultural theorist Stuart Hall and Claudia Jones, who helped to create the Notting Hill Carnival, one of the largest annual arts events in the world.