For years now, Caribbean High Commissioners, activists, church organisations and community oriented Caribbean companies have been raising with the British government and parliamentarians the shocking way in which undocumented members of the Caribbean diaspora who came to Britain between 1948 and 1971 have been treated.
This has involved in the absence of proof of citizenship, the British authorities denying individuals of Caribbean origin medical care and pensions, and in some cases holding them in custody pending deportation. This was despite their demonstrable contribution to British society and life-long residence in Britain.
However, an interview on the BBC’s morning domestic radio news programme ‘Today’, which is said to shape Britain’s national political dialogue, changed all of that. The High Commissioner for Barbados, Guy Hewitt, in an impassioned and personal series of comments spoke movingly about the plight and suffering of many members of the Windrush generation and their experience of a form of persecution by the British authorities.