State Minister Says Government Will Continue to Advocate for Windrush Generation

State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., says the Government will continue to actively advocate on behalf of the Windrush Generation.

“The Government will continue to actively advocate for resolution to this Windrush immigration crisis, including the matter of just and adequate compensation to victims,” Senator Charles Jr. said.

“We intend, therefore, to utilise our resources both locally and in the United Kingdom (UK) to encourage more persons who have been affected to come forward, seek assistance and to make legitimate claims,” he added.

He was making a presentation on the topic, ‘Challenges of the Windrush Generation’, during the University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work’s biweekly departmental seminar.

The Seminar was held at the Senate Building today (October 25) at the UWI, Mona Campus.

Despite living and working in the UK for decades, thousands of people who arrived in the country as children in the first wave of Commonwealth migration (called the Windrush Generation) were being threatened with deportation.

Many of those affected are of Jamaican and Caribbean heritage.

The State Minister said the Government will continue to work collaboratively with the UK government on specific cases, which, to date, has borne fruit.

“This crisis has presented an opportunity for Jamaica and our Caribbean friends and partners to unite. It is [also] a cause for us to bolster the influence of our diaspora in the UK, while also simultaneously providing the well-needed support to those who are vulnerable,” Mr. Charles Jr. said.

The Empire Windrush, a passenger liner, is regarded as the symbolic starting point of a wave of Caribbean migration between 1948 and 1971, known as the ‘Windrush Generation’.

Many were enticed to cross the Atlantic by job opportunities amid the UK’s post-war labour shortage.

The ship, which sailed from Jamaica on May 27 and arrived in London almost a month later on June 21, was carrying 1,027 passengers, according to the UK National Archives.

More than half of the passengers on board (539) gave their last country of residence as Jamaica, while 139 said Bermuda and 119 stated England. There were also people from Mexico, Scotland, Gibraltar, Burma and Wales.