GUYANESE, particularly those born in the 1950s, will of course remember the many farewell parties, held as a matter of tradition in those days, for members of their immediate families, relatives and friends, who set sail for England.

This was naturally traditional, as well as cultural, since England was our colonizer. British Guiana, as our country was then called, was a part of what used to be referred to as part of the overseas British Empire, in addition to the island colonies of the then named British West Indies.

This was a movement that began after the ending of the Second World War, as British West Indians, in their quest for a better life, departed these shores for good old England. After all, they were also responding to Britain’s call for overseas labour to rebuild a country devastated by endless tons of Nazi bombs. Thus, via the Empire Windrush, they sailed mainly to Southampton, where they disembarked.

Many of these would-be migrants were former soldiers of the British West Indies Regiment, the British Caribbean contribution to Britain and Europe’s bloody battle against the threat of Nazi tyranny.

Caribbean immigrants have never had an easy time settling in Britain. Legion is the account of discrimination in every conceivable form with which these early arrivals had to contend. Whether in the British military, police force, or workplace, this was the daily challenge of immigrants from, especially, the British Caribbean–later the Caribbean– with the passage of Independence.

But they weathered the storm and persevered in furthering the lives of themselves and families, through hard work, with many going on to carve their names indelibly in British political-socio-economic life.
Fast forward, and almost 70 years later, because of new immigration laws recently designed to restrict the flow of migrants going to Britain, and which placed the onus of proof of the right to residency on them, the descendants of those early Windrush Empire boat journeys are now faced with an additional set of challenges because of the lack of proof as bona fides.

It is astonishing that many of these early arrivals are now being penalised, with many already being deported to their place of origin, even after they would have been residing in their adopted homeland for over 50 years and contributing to the growth and development of Britain, and even paying their share of taxes. And even if there may be accusations of disinterest on the part of some of these arrivals, yet the threatening measures are disproportionate as penalty.

Even, as had been offered as reason(s) for such discriminatory action by the Home Office, as denial of employment, health services, and even housing, the fact is that these people are no more or no less British than those born in Britain.

Further, it was a shortsighted and highly questionable decision on the part of what had to be directives from very senior sources. Surely, these well deserving people who would have given so much to Britain and are now being targeted, would have had some form of registration–completed on their arrival at the various ports of disembarkation–which they could have referred to as evidence of their longevity in Britain, even before the Immigration Act of 1971, that granted all Caribbean persons in Britain, before that date, the right of indefinite leave to remain.

The destruction, also, of the vital arrival registration information, reported in the British daily, The Independent, explains the very strange and indifferent manner in which this issue of Caribbean migration to, and migrants in, Britain have been dealt with by the State.
One is certain that the European Union is perhaps viewing this extant situation relative to the Windrush scenario; for should Brexit become an eventual reality, the status of the millions of European migrants now in Britain comes into question.

Diplomatically, apologies have been made to the visiting Caribbean Heads of delegation to the current Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), with offers now being made to those affected, to waive the fees for the processing of regularisation of status.

While these are good in terms of ameliorating a very stressful and embarrassing situation for many of those affected migrants, similar efforts should also be considered to have those, already deported to their island states, assisted to return to a place called home, for most of their lives, if they so desire.

Britain must always remember the debt owed to their former Caribbean colonies and their many citizens, mostly deceased, who would have spilt their blood and guts on distant shores in defence of the empire under which flag they once lived, and proudly served. The remaining survivors of this era of colonization, moreover, their descendants, deserve better.