The UK Home Office intends to hold a series of events around the country to raise awareness of its Windrush Compensation Scheme.
The public events, to be held in locations including Leeds, Liverpool, Sandwell, Southwark and Wolverhampton, will form the second part of an engagement programme designed to reach out to reach out to members of the community who have been negatively affected by the Windrush scandal, which saw large numbers of UK residents who had moved from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973 wrongly detained, deported, removed from their homes or denied medical care under the Home Office’s ‘hostile environment’ policy. Representatives of the Commonwealth Citizens’ Taskforce will attend the events to provide information and support to individuals making a claim under the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
The Home Office has already held 17 community engagement events between April, when the compensation scheme was launched, and June 2019. The Windrush Compensation Scheme, which aims to provide redress to UK residents who suffered adverse effects through an inability to prove their settled status in the UK, is open to citizens of the British Commonwealth who arrived in the UK before 1973; as well as certain children, grandchildren and close family members who may have been affected. Residents who arrived in the UK from any country before 31 December 1988 and have since been granted settled status or British citizenship may also be able to apply for compensation under the scheme regardless of their country of origin.
Immigration Minister Seema Kennedy said: “We are determined to right the wrongs of successive governments and that’s why our taskforce will travel to events across the country, from Liverpool to Lewisham, giving hands-on advice and support. The scheme has been designed to be as generous as possible and so I would urge anyone who thinks they may have been affected to attend an event and find out more.”
