“It is a true honour and a privilege to be able to be the first government minister to be able to stand with you in Windrush Square,” Seema Malhotra MP, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for migration and citizenship, told the third annual Windrush National Vigil in Brixton.
The event honours the contributions of the Windrush Generation and addresses the challenges – particularly those of the Windrush scandal – that are still faced by many of them and their descendants.
“We gather to reflect, to remember those who we lost, who passed away before justice was done, and to recommit to the action that we know must be taken,” the minister said.
She thanked other speakers, local MPs, councillors and the Black Cultural Archives, as well as veterans from the Windrush generation itself who were in the square.
“Together, what we see is a community telling a story and a story that we don’t see told as much as it so very much needs to be,” she said.
“We remember the Windrush Generation, the women and men, who as we have heard today, answered Britain’s call to come and to help rebuild our country after the Second World War – men and women who came as citizens and built their lives here.
“They made an immeasurable contribution to our economy, to our public services, looking after us in our NHS, keeping our transport systems running, protecting us in our armed forces.
“They raised families, created businesses, enriching our culture and our nation.
“And they did so while facing racism, prejudice, and hardship. And still they stayed and they stood proud.
“But let us also be honest,” said the minister, “this is a moment not just of gratitude, but also of reckoning. The treatment of the Windrush Generation by successive governments was a profound injustice.”
“People who belonged here, had the right to be here, were questioned, detained, made, destitute, even removed.
“Some lost everything. Some died before hearing an apology.
“For many, the suffering we know is still going on.
“But for those that we have lost, we remember them. Today, we light candles, not just for their memory, but as a symbol of our enduring responsibility to make right this wrong and to make sure it can never happen again.”
Seema Malhotra said as the Home Office minister for migration and citizenship, also on behalf of the Home Secretary, and also as a minister for equalities, she took this responsibility very seriously.
“I’m grateful for the ongoing engagement with the Windrush National Organisation (WNO), and so many groups and individuals around the country – some of whom are here today – for what they share, for how they share it, and for the way in which they continue to keep all of the Home Office honest in the work that we know needs to be done,” she said.
“We are committed to seeing a fundamental reset for the Windrush Generation with respect and dignity at its core, and keeping the individual, the victim and their families at the heart of all that we do.”
The minister said that the Home Office Windrush unit – abolished by Suella Braverman when she was Conservative government Home Secretary – had been re-established by the current government.
It is now dedicated to driving forward the action needed to ensure that what happened to the Windrush Generation never happens again, she said
“We are recruiting a Windrush Commissioner to serve as an independent advocate for all those affected to ensure delivery of the Windrush compensation scheme and to hold the department to account.”
She said the government is working to increase awareness training and culture change, not just in the Home Office, but also across the whole of the government – “because justice is also about restoring dignity; it is about ensuring that the systems that failed so many are rebuilt on the principles of humanity, of respect, and of accountability”.
The minister said the government’s work “must be shaped by those whose stories it is informed by, and those who have lived those journeys” – by the elders who continue to speak truth to power, and by families who have never stopped campaigning for justice.
“I am absolutely determined to hear your voices first hand. Listening, hearing and openness is the only way we can ensure that real change happens,” she said.
“But today I also want to acknowledge something that is deeply important,” she continued.
“The Windrush generation is not just part of our history. They have their place in the foundation of modern Britain and their legacy will always live on. It is our responsibility to make sure that that happens.”
The minister also thanked the Black Cultural Archives for “the incredible work” that they do.
To the elders who were at the vigil, she said: “Thank you for what you gave. Thank you for what you have endured. And thank you for continuing with guiding, reminding, and calling on us to do better.
“Let this vigil be more than a moment of reflection. Let it be a marker of resolve and commitment to continue to work together to right the wrongs of the past.”
Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, whose constituency includes Windrush Square, listing reasons why the Windrush generation came to Brixton, said one was that they were able to find accommodation there.
“And the reason that they were able to find accommodation here was because there was already a Jamaican landlord who didn’t adopt the same racist practices as many of the other landlords in London.
“They have forged the identity of Brixton and they have sustained the community of Brixton over all of those decades since.
“And, as a very powerful symbol of the contribution that the Windrush generation have made in so many spheres of our national life, at the end of Coldharbour Lane is King’s College Hospital.”
Helen Hayes said the NHS had been sustained by the work and the commitment and the dedication of so many of the Windrush generation who answered the call to come to this country to help to found and to work in the national health service.
“So I’m immensely proud to represent this community. And what the Windrush Generation did in creating the Brixton that we know today, is to create a community where anybody can come and find their way.
“And that was true for me in 1996 when I came as a much, much younger woman to live just up the road.
“I felt embraced by this community because this is a community that is outward facing and internationalist and fundamentally welcoming in our values.”
The Windrush scandal, when it happened in 2018, was a “devastating insult” to this community that was felt very, very deeply across our whole community, said the MP.
“In my constituency office, we understood that there was a very, very big problem before it had been named the Windrush scandal, because I had constituents who suddenly were finding that they had a problem with their immigration status and were experiencing those hardships that we know came from that insult by the Home Office.
“They were losing their access to pensions, to employment, to healthcare services.
“All of those terrible insults and hardships that we know were at the heart of that injustice.
“Even more than that, they were experiencing the profound sense of rejection from their home country. And that created very, very deep psychological wounds. So we have been fighting for justice, I’ve been representing my constituents, and we continue to fight for justice.”
Helen Hayes said that, if we are to avoid a future scandal such as this, we have to pay attention to the question of education.
“We have to know that everybody across our country understands our national story, understands that we are a country that has been created ever since our existence by people coming from overseas to make a place in our communities and to bring their skills and talents and experiences to make us what we are.
“And in that context, I really want to draw your attention to the Black Cultural Archives next door – the only organisation in this country dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Black people in the United Kingdom – a fundamentally important national organisation, which does not yet have national status or national funding.
“So that is very much where I am turning my attention to getting the Black Cultural Archives where it needs to be, so that vital work of education and advocacy can avoid a situation where such a scandal ever takes place again.”
