The Home Secretary announced last week that legislation has been introduced to bring into force a package of measures under a Windrush scheme.
A call to evidence to enable members of the Windrush generation to share their experiences and help shape a bespoke compensation scheme was also launched earlier this month. This will run until 8 June and has already received almost 100 responses.
The Windrush scheme will come into effect on Wednesday 30 May. The Home Office has made public casework guidance for its own caseworkers on how it intends to deal with cases. It is worth noting the following:
- The casework guidance covers all Commonwealth countries not just the Caribbean nations
- People applying, but not eligible, may be referred through other eligible routes – this will be at the discretion of a senior decision-maker, but there is no more public information about this
- There is no right of appeal for refusals; given the current situation and state of inaccuracy and misrepresentation by the Home Office of Windrush cases, this seems nonsensical
- There is still the prospect of removal and deportation for those who may have a criminal record
- At least 10 pages of the guidance are restricted for Home Office internal use. Given the outcry and lack of transparency in making clear the issues and getting decision makers to take cases seriously, this does not bode well for issues of trust.
You can read the casework guidance here.