By Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will appoint a commissioner to scrutinise compensation for Caribbean migrants who were wrongfully detained and deported by the British state, and to help ensure such a scandal never happens again, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
In 2018, Britain had to apologise for its treatment of the so-called Windrush generation – the hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Caribbean who came to Britain between 1948 and 1971 to fill labour shortages in post-war Britain.
Known as the Windrush scandal in reference to the name of one of the first ships that brought Caribbean migrants during that time, a tightening of immigration policy meant thousands were denied basic rights despite having lived in Britain for decades and dozens were wrongly deported.
The Windrush Commissioner will be an independent voice for victims and advise the government on its delivery of compensation to those who incurred losses, the government said.
Seema Malhotra, migration and citizenship minister, said the commissioner would carry out “crucial work to ensure that such an injustice can never happen again and that dignity is restored to those who have suffered”.
Applications are now open for the position, which pays an annual salary of 130,000 pounds ($162,136.00) and asks for a time commitment of three days a week.
The successful candidate will work alongside the Windrush Unit, which was set up by the government to oversee its response to the scandal and embed permanent cultural change.
It comes after an official report published in September last year revealed the scandal was the result of decades of racist immigration laws designed to reduce the country’s non-white population.
($1 = 0.8018 pounds)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by William James)
