Don Letts, AJ Tracey, Annie Lennox among musicians to sign open letter calling for faster Windrush compensation
Payments must be faster and should be administered by an independent organisation, not the Home Office, the letter says
Don Letts, AJ Tracey and Annie Lennox are among the British musicians calling for an overhaul of the Windrush compensation scheme.
Lady Doreen Lawrence, TV star Jay Blades, and actors Colin McFarlane and Adrian Lester have also added their names to the #Justice4Windrush letter. Martin Forde, legal adviser to the #Justice4Windrush campaign and legal adviser to the Home Office on the design of the Windrush Compensation Scheme, has also voiced his support for the document, which was addressed to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party.
Among other things, the campaigners are demanding the system be taken out of Home Office hands and instead administered by an independent organisation. The burden of documentary proof individuals must submit before being classified as eligible for payments should also be lowered.
“We have heard stories of individuals being wrongly denied tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of compensation, and of families whose lives have been torn apart while they await an outcome. This is unacceptable," Forde told The Guardian newspaper.
“The Windrush Compensation Scheme has left many victims in a state of limbo," Forde added, in a separate statement. "We have heard stories of individuals being wrongly denied tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of compensation, and of families whose lives have been torn apart while they await an outcome. This is unacceptable and we are calling on the Home Office to move quickly to deliver compensation for eligible Windrushees.”
"The Home Office scandal that impacted the Windrush generation is not over. In 2022, a leaked internal report commissioned by the Home Office revealed 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," said campaign leader McFarlane.
You can read the letter in full here.
The Windrush compensation scheme pays out to people who were wrongly accused of being illegal immigrants by the UK Government despite having lived in the country for decades. This led to losses of jobs and homes, refusal of health treatment on the NHS, blocked pension payments, bank accounts closures and the withdrawal of driving licenses.
Revisit DJ Mag's feature on the children of the Windrush generation and their impact on UK dance music, club and rave culture, which is also explored in the mixed media project Our Yard, which launched last year
