Agenda item

Nazreen Altaf – immigration solicitor at CLS

Weekly drop in at one stop shop weds morn 9:30 to 11:30

Drop in at Wellingborough 1^st Monday of the month

Free immigration advice – advice about applications etc.

Windrush

What is it? Referenced to first ship that came 22^nd June 1948 – 1^st ship of nationals from Caribbean. Was a response to labour shortages after the war, came to rebuild the country.

Worked for 25 years and finally granted settlement. 1971 immigration act – same right as other British nationals. They were never issued with any documentation, just accepted they were now citizens.

Later laws made distinctions between who was born and immigrated to the UK. The rights act from 71 meant they could leave the country for 2 years and everything would be fine.

88 act took the right away, more than 2 years, you are not allowed to come back.

Theresa may when home sec wanted to tackle immigration, she bought in things that made it difficult for those who were here illegally to stay here. The people from the Windrush era who hadn’t been out of the country, they never had the correct documents to say they were legal in this country. The passports they would have had, were decades old and now illegible. Those who had a passport with an endorsement would now have to pass the British citizenship test. Employers would be fined if they couldn’t prove their employee was in the country legally, this lead to unemployment/suspension, which had a knock on effect that the individual would then suffer from debt because they couldn’t get a job to pay the bills that they needed to.

If these people left the country, they were then not allowed back in as they did not have a British or endorsed passport. One man was stranded for 21 months. April 2018 is when the status they were given in the 70’s to finally be recognised and given confirmation of what they were told in the 70’s.

This immigration form is 19 pages long and the team can be contacted over the phone. Settled status, British citizenship or right of abode. To get a British passport you have to pay for the passport and apply separately.

Solicitors have to pass an exam every 3 years to be a immigration advisor/solicitor. If a solicitor practices without this, they can be imprisoned for up to two years.

If the application is refused, it can be reviewed. There is no fee for this application.

Q: When people go away and when they come back they’re not allowed back in, how did they get out?

A: People are allowed to leave the country using their home national passport. Children were often included on their parent’s passport. It is up to the individual to make sure that they have the documents to get back into the country. Now people get residents card but this was not available back in the 70’s.

There is/will be a Windrush compensation scheme in place from the government which can be applied for.

Q: Does this effect people from other commonwealth countries?

A: There were different schemes for different countries when entering the country, unfortunately the islands documents had not been endorsed.

Q: Has this affected this county?

A: Yes, there have been lots of cases.

YU: No one has looked into the knock on effect it has had on the community.

PW: Thanked Nazreen for the very detailed talk with the fourm.

YU: The youth of today think they are disposable and that they are not being listened to. They are told how to behave and told what they should do.

MC: Although what happened is awful, it brought the community together to force action as a united group.

SB: If we didn’t have such a diverse country, our emergency services would suffer.