Windrush scandal survivors ask if UK is 'going backwards', commissioner warns

Black Britons are asking if the UK is “going backwards”, the Windrush commissioner has warned in an interview marking his 100th day in office.

- Chris Osuh Community affairs correspondent

The Rev Clive Foster said Windrush scandal survivors were questioning whether “history is repeating itself” as UK politicians target legal migrants.

Foster, whose parents came to the UK from Jamaica in 1959, called for empathy and compassion in Home Office decision-making, adding: “I don’t want to live in a country where I’m made to feel I don’t belong.”

The commissioner, recruited to speak for survivors and oversee the government's work to address the scandal, has met 700 survivors during a UK tour since taking office in June. Last week, the Home Office announced it had adopted a series of his recommendations for reforming the underperforming Windrush compensation scheme.

Foster is now calling for “proper stress testing” of any proposed changes to immigration policy to ensure there is “a clear understanding of the human impact”, suggesting legislation could be needed to ensure no future government rowed back on promises made after Windrush.

In the Windrush scandal, Commonwealth Britons who had entered the country legally as British subjects were wrongly classed as illegal migrants years later.