Windrush Day celebrations postponed but racial issues are at the forefront across Sheffield

Windrush Day celebrations may have been postponed in Sheffield but recent developments in the Black Lives Matter Movement have brought racial issues to the forefront across the city.
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Today marks Windrush Day, the annual event established in 2018 in the wake the Windrush scandal when many of those invited to Britain suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of immigration laws.

The anniversary of the arrival of MV Empire Windrush at the Port of Tilbury, on June 22, 1948, celebrates those who arrived, their descendants and their importance contribution to society - from the rebuilding of the country and public services following the Second World War, to social, economic, cultural and religious life.

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Councillor Terry Fox, deputy leader at Sheffield City Council, said: “Despite the courageous efforts of our nation, Britain was decimated during World War II.

The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port.  (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port.  (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The British liner 'Empire Windrush' at port. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“Sheffield in particular suffered huge destruction during the Blitz and we needed help to rebuild the city and the country.

“The contribution that the Windrush generation made during a pivotal point in the UK’s history, and the history of our city cannot be underestimated.

“It was not easy for these people, they faced much discrimination, but they stepped forward and played a huge part in rebuilding our future, a future which they and their ancestors are an integral part of.

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“The impact of Covid-19 means we are unable to celebrate their contribution and give thanks in the way we would like to on this significant day.

22nd June 1948:  Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury.  (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)22nd June 1948:  Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury.  (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)
22nd June 1948: Newly arrived Jamaican immigrants on board the 'Empire Windrush' at Tilbury. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)

“But I would still like to personally thank them, and all those who we have welcomed in to our societies, not only for helping us regenerate our nation but for enriching our lives with cultural diversity.

“We want to pay tribute with the energy and vibrancy that our black communities deserve, and we will do this later in the year during Black History Month celebrations.”

Councillor Abtisam Mohamed, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills at Sheffield City Council is leading on Sheffield’s Racial Equality Commission.

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She said: “Recent developments in the Black Lives Matter Movement have brought racial issues to the forefront across the world, and we are supporting this movement because today black people still face serious racial prejudice in many areas of their lives.

In this June 22, 1948 file photo, Jamaican men, mostly ex Royal Air Force servicemen, pose for a photo aboard the former troopship, S.S. Empire Windrush, before disembarking at Tilbury Docks, England. Monday, June 22, 2020 marks the 72nd anniversary since the Empire Windrush ship brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to a Britain seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth, File)In this June 22, 1948 file photo, Jamaican men, mostly ex Royal Air Force servicemen, pose for a photo aboard the former troopship, S.S. Empire Windrush, before disembarking at Tilbury Docks, England. Monday, June 22, 2020 marks the 72nd anniversary since the Empire Windrush ship brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to a Britain seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth, File)
In this June 22, 1948 file photo, Jamaican men, mostly ex Royal Air Force servicemen, pose for a photo aboard the former troopship, S.S. Empire Windrush, before disembarking at Tilbury Docks, England. Monday, June 22, 2020 marks the 72nd anniversary since the Empire Windrush ship brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to a Britain seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth, File)

“Systemic racism runs through all societies, but it’s hidden, it’s not obvious to see, and in most cases it’s not intended. From education and employment to opportunity and involvement, we must identify these issues so that we can begin to understand how to bring about true racial equality.

“Everyone has a right to live without fear of being judged; or being treated differently because of the colour of their skin. Throughout history our citizens have campaigned for human rights and equality, and made a difference, and now is not the time for us to sit back and be silent.”

Community groups and Sheffield’s BAMER Hub will be planning a range of activities later in the year and details will be shared nearer the time.

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Although Windrush Day is only in its second year, 49 projects were awarded funding from the government for this year’s events.

In Sheffield, money will go towards community grants scheme and project to enhance Sheffield’s Windrush archive.

Around the country, events for Windrush Day 2020 have included lectures and readings, cooking classes, theatrical and musical events.

Clinton McKoy of SADACCA – the community hub for many Caribbean migrants in Sheffield – said: “I walked past SADACCA this morning and the doors were still locked.

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“I’ve been involved with exhibitions in the Winter Gardens in the past, with portraits of people telling their stories.”

Chrissy Meleady MBE, of Equalities and Human Rights Sheffield, has expressed her concern over an increasing number of White Lives Matter messages seen in Sheffield and across South Yorkshire.

The latest one she spotted was on a bridge near the Asda superstore on Sheffield Parkway.

She wants people to understand that the Black Lives Matter campaign is not devaluing white lives.

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“It is addressing the systemic racism that has existed for generations of the black community,” she said.

Chrissy believes that ‘All Lives Will Matter When Black Lives Matter here in the UK and globally too’. Here she explains why.

Monday, June 22 2020 is National Windrush Day, which was established to celebrate the contribution and legacy of the Windrush generation here in Britain and it honours the wider British Caribbean community too, and their immense and enduring contribution to the UK’s social good and their integral place in the British family.

The name Windrush Generation derives from the ship MV Empire Windrush, which set sail from with 492 Jamaican people, who docked in Tilbury Essex in 1948.

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These Commonwealth citizens were invited by the British Government to come to the UK to help rebuild Britain, who were facing a labour shortage following the devastation of World War II.

Other ships followed between 1948-1971. These invitees came from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Many came from British colonies that had not attained independence, and understood that they were British citizens and more so because of the British Nationality Act 1971 which made them, they understood, citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

The 1971 Immigration Act gave to Commonwealth Citizens and their spouses and children, who were already in the UK up to 1973, indefinite leave to remain too.

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It remains unclear how many people belong to the Windrush generation, since many of those who arrived as children travelled on their parents’ passports and never applied for travel documents - but they are thought to be numbered in their thousands.- according to estimates by Oxford University’s Migration Observatory.

The Home Office failed to maintain a record of those granted leave to remain and neither did they issue any paperwork confirming it, resulting in problems for the Windrush Generation and their UK status. Adding to this, the landing cards belonging to Windrush’ migrants’ were shockingly destroyed by the British Government’s Home Office in 2010.

With the onset and escalation of the Government's changes to immigration law in 2012, people were required to produce documentation to work, rent a property or access benefits, including healthcare.

This Hostile Environment policy made life very difficult for the Windrush Generation, meaning that without proper ID checks, people could not access the NHS, sign contracts with landlords, or banks, or be employed – even though they were British citizens.

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Then in 2013, people from the Windrush Generation received letters telling them they had no right to be in the UK, which subsequently meant people lost their jobs, their homes and access to the NHS, while others were placed in immigration detention or deported, although they had lived in Britain for many decades even paying taxes and insurance.

It was demanded of them that they must prove they were living in the UK legally, despite them being so and in order to prove this they were instructed to provide one document from each year they had been in Britain.

I can tell you from my own personal experience of advocating for these people that this was nigh on impossible for them, as they had arrived as babes in arms, toddlers or small children, with their parents decades before and what records that had existed proving their entitlement of being here, had been destroyed by the British Government in 2010.

Challenges to government to cease and desist began and increased including from the earliest of days, from us in Equalities and Human Rights here in Sheffield, with 140 MPs later on down the line, joining in the challenge to urge the Government to change their policy – a U-turn ensued.

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Promises of restitution for the extensive harm, stress and suffering caused to these Black members of the British citizenry was issued but to date only 36 people have received compensation under the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Some people are left destitute and others have sadly died.

National Windrush Day should not have to be a day, when we in Equalities and Human Rights are obliged to condemn the still prevailing failings of Government and their continuing maltreatment of the Windrush Generation but it remains our duty to do so, until such time that the Government redresses its wrongs as described above.

The Windrush Generation came to the aid of Britain. They came invited. They came as educated, proud people to the motherland, only to be subjected to racism. They and their children made their lives here, contributing to the social good and the rebuilding of Britain.

The ill-treatment of these Black members of the British family provides further evidence of why there is a requirement to give focused and dedicated attention to why the Black Lives Matter campaign is essential because in the pursuit of the government’s Hostile Environment and in the reneging of their promises to the Windrush Generation, we have standing proof, which aligns to a myriad of other examples here in the UK, of Black Lives Not Mattering to Government and evidence of pure systemic racism being at the core of how Black people are seen, valued and treated.

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We in Equalities and Human Rights here in Sheffield and nationally, pay homage to the Windrush Generation and to all those of African Caribbean ethnicity at this time of commemoration and thank them and those that have gone before them for their many contributions to Sheffield and Britain over the years. We recognise what Black people have gone through and are going through now and we stand firmly in solidarity with them.

People feeling aggrieved at the use of the term Black Lives Matter, need to reflect on the above and to take on board that All Lives Will Matter When Black Lives Matter here in the UK and globally too.

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