The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) equalities watchdog has found in its "Assessment of hostile environment policies" that these policies that caused the Windrush scandal broke the law and are “a shameful stain on British history”. ​The damning report concludes that the Home Office failed in its “legal duties” towards black Britons, and that the harsh effects of the crackdown were “repeatedly ignored, dismissed, or their severity disregarded”. Ministers failed to listen properly to protests from members of the Windrush generation, “even as the severe effects of hostile environment policies began to emerge”. The EHRC said its findings endorsed the conclusion of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review that the experiences of victims of the scandal were “foreseeable and avoidable”. 

The Windrush compensation scheme has paid just £1.6m to 196 people in 18 months when a bill of between £200m and £570m was expected. At least nine people have died before receiving the compensation they applied for. A black official helping to run the scheme resigned last week over “racism” and the government’s failure to help victims.

The EHRC concluded that the Home Office did not comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which requires all public authorities to consider how their decisions affect people protected under the Equality Act. Impact assessments were “often considered too late to form a meaningful part of many decision-making processes”. Exceptions to the PSED for immigration were “in many cases interpreted incorrectly or inconsistently, and there was a general lack of commitment within the Home Office to the importance of equality”.

​Read more here and here. Download the report here.

Two more reports have been added to the growing pile of research showing that minority ethnic communities have been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, this time revealing that little effort has been made to address the issue.

A joint report from IPPR and Runnymede trust states: "there has been little effort to stop Covid-19 hitting minority ethnic communities hardest as we enter the second wave". It estimates that over 2,500 deaths could have been avoided during the first wave in England and Wales if the black and Asian populations did not experience an extra risk of death from Covid-19 compared to the white population (after adjusting for differences in age and sex). Put differently, over 58,000 and 35,000 additional deaths from Covid-19 would have occurred if the white population had experienced the same risk of death from Covid-19 as the black and Asian and populations respectively. The inequalities are not explained by underlying diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes) or genetics (as there is no genetic basis for race or ethnicity). The report says: "this inequality is likely to be driven by structural and institutional racism that results in differences in social conditions (such as occupation and housing) and differential access to healthcare". Read more here.

​The second report is a follow up by The Independent to the Government-commissioned review from Public Health England in June into inequalities in Covid deaths. It states that: "four months on, as the country heads towards another peak of cases, the government has been unable to provide The Independent with details of any action taken to address the issue". It quotes Marsha de Cordova, Labour’s shadow equalities minister: “Ministers’ failure to prevent the disproportionate impact of Covid is negligent, discriminatory and unlawful.” Read more here.

The cartoon, from The Independent in June, sums it up well.

With the help of advisor and founding trustee, Dr Clifford Hill, MJR has written a response to the recent publication by the National Trust of a report showing connections between 93 of its historic places and colonialism and historic slavery.

The report is welcomed, particularly the statement: “We believe that only by honestly and openly acknowledging and sharing those stories can we do justice to the true complexity of past, present and future, and the sometimes uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history since the 16th century or even earlier.” 
The National Trust say that 29 of the properties now in their care have direct links with colonial slavery and the slave trade, and about one third of all their properties have some kind of connection to colonialism. The hope is expressed that the National Trust research will lead to the establishment of a positive programme of dealing with the vast number of buildings, statues and plaques that have links with British colonial history and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Read the full response here. Read the National Trust report here.

CharitySoWhite is a people of colour led campaign group set up in 2019 seeking to tackle institutional racism in the charity sector. Its vision is of "a charity sector that is taking the lead on tackling and rooting out racism". They recently published this position paper looking at how Covid-19 and its social and economic impacts will disproportionately effect BAME communities.

'Racial Injustice in the Covid-19 Response' states: "Without a purposeful, intersectional approach centring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities the current outbreak of COVID-19 will lead to severe consequences and will further entrench racial inequalities in our society". 5 key issues are identified:

1. Health inequalities - BAME groups remain over-represented in the “at-risk” communities identified by the Government, which is concerning given the racialised access and treatment within the UK health system
2. Emergency measures legislation - The lack of guidance around emergency measures, such as police powers and school closures is already leading to local variation and disproportionate impact on BAME communities
3. Risk of destitution - BAME communities are over-represented in key worker categories, as well as over-represented in low income groups with lower rates of home ownership
4. Hostile environment - The hostile environment and particularly No Recourse to Public Funds is preventing migrants from accessing basic rights during the crisis
5. Protection and Enforcement - The concern about increases in domestic violence, the rights of those currently in prison or detention, and increased attacks against East Asians.

Read the full paper here.

​After publication of the 'lessons learned' report into the Windrush scandal, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has apologised in the House of Lords for the "wickedness" of the "terrible reception" given to members of the Windrush generation by the Church of England. "One of the historic failures of the Church of England, in many ways as bad as the 'hostile environment,' was the terrible reception we gave to the Windrush Britain generation, many of them Anglicans. As a result they went off and formed their own churches which have flourished much better than ours.We would have been so much stronger if we had behaved correctly."  He said they were very often "turned away" or given a "very weak welcome or no welcome at all". Read more here.

In response to the Windrush Review, published yesterday, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced three new initiatives as she gave an apology in Parliament.

1. A new £500,000 community fund for local groups to raise awareness of the Windrush Schemes and support those wishing to claim compensation;
2. an advertising campaign to promote the Schemes; and
3. an expanded cross-Government Windrush action to develop programmes to improve the lives of those affected.

 
MJR's initial response to the report and what action should now be taken is to:

• Accept the report and promise to implement its recommendations in full.
• Ensure the immediate needs of those affected is attended to so that further hardship is avoided.
• Distinguish between undocumented (a small minority) and documented (a significant majority) Windrush Generation to avoid infantilising the whole group; and give credit for community agency, without which the numbers of victims would be much higher.
• Repeal legislations that compound compliant/hostile environment.
• Extend the window to apply to the compensation scheme.
• Ask if offering more money as the Home Secretary did today without making tangible steps to repair, may be seen as further sop and obfuscation.

MJR will be following closely the way in which the government responds to this important report.

The long overdue independent report on the Windrush Scandal was finally published today, amid much suspicion that the timing, in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, strongly suggests the government are hoping it's contents and recommendations will receive as little attention as possible.

​The Windrush Lessons Learned Review is scathing on the way British citizens were wrongly deported, dismissed from their jobs and deprived of services such as NHS care and says the Home Office demonstrated “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race” during the Windrush scandal. It concludes that the failings are “consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism”.

The report’s author, Wendy Williams said at its launch: “The Windrush generation has been poorly served by this country, a country to which they contributed so much and in which they had every right to make their lives. The many stories of injustice and hardships are heartbreaking, with jobs lost, lives uprooted and untold damage done to so many individuals and families.” The 275-page report says the roots of the problem can be traced back to racially motivated legislation dating back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Read more here and here.

MP David Lammy commented: "If the government is serious about righting the wrongs suffered by the Windrush generation, it will recognise that this moment cannot be ignored. The hostile environment must be replaced by a humane environment". Read his opinion piece here.

Read the Home Secretary's response to the report here, and access the report itself here.

It has been revealed that a report which concluded that the Home Office was 'institutionally racist' over its 'hostile environment' immigration policy has been 'watered down'. The claim has been edited out of the final draft of the so-called 'lessons learned' Windrush Review into detentions and deportations of members of the Windrush Generation. The report was originally due to be published in March 2019 but has yet to appear. 

An early draft of the report, led by inspector of constabulary Wendy Williams, described the Home Office as 'institutionally racist'. But according to sources reported by The Times, this has been removed. Previous leaked extracts of the report said the department had been 'reckless' and had a 'defensive culture' over how it handled immigration. A leak that emerged last week said the government should end the removal of foreign-born offenders who arrived in the UK as children. According to The Times, this recommendation has also been removed from the latest version

Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned on the Windrush scandal, said it had resulted in the "systematic deportation and detention of black citizens by the Home Office. The victim's nationality and rights were denied because of the colour of their skin. If that is not institutionally racist, I have no idea what is."

​Read more here and here.

The Runnymede Trust, a race equality thinktank, is urging the government to make lessons on migration, belonging and empire mandatory in every secondary school in England. The Windrush scandal has exposed a “shocking lack of understanding” at government level about the winding up of the empire. At present just 4% of pupils taking GCSE history choose the “migration to Britain” option, which also covers the topic of the British empire.

The report states: “Migration and empire are not marginal events: they are central to our national story. As it stands the story we are telling is incomplete”. The reports findings are contested by the Department of Education, however historian and broadcaster David Olusoga said: “I find it hard to believe that the Windrush scandal could have been possible if we were a country that was aware of and educated in the history of empire, decolonisation and migration after 1945.” 

​Read more here and find the report itself here.

In research to be presented to the Human Rights Council in July, Tendayi Achiume, the UN’s special rapporteur on racism describes the “structural socioeconomic exclusion” of racial and ethnic minorities in the UK as “striking”. Her report claims that race, ethnicity, religion, gender and disability status all continue to determine the life chances and wellbeing of people in Britain in ways that were “unacceptable and, in many cases, unlawful”, and that austerity measures had been “disproportionately detrimental” to people of racial and ethnic minorities. It also highlights that "these groups were also overrepresented in criminal justice enforcement and underrepresented within the institutions that adjudicate crime and punishment." And: "In a broader context of national anti-immigrant anxiety, the predictable result of the UK government’s immigration policy and enforcement is racial discrimination and racialised exclusion. The Windrush scandal is a glaring example.”

This is the second highly critical UN report on UK government policy to be published in the last month, after a UN poverty expert compared current welfare policies to the creation of 19th-century workhouses and said the UK’s poorest people faced lives that would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” unless austerity was ended.

Read more here. Read the UN Statement on the report here.