A new campaign has been launched, aimed at applying pressure on the Home Office to compensate those affected by the Windrush scandal. Thousands of Carribean born British citizens were wrongly labelled as illegal immigrants despite having lived and worked here for decades. Victims of the scandal were wrongly detained, deported, sacked from their jobs, made homeless or denied pensions, benefits, NHS treatment, bank accounts, mobile phone contracts or driving licences as a result, and in 2019 the government set up a scheme to compensate them.

The new campaign uses the calls of actors, musicians and campaigners to hurry the government into action on the matter. A scheme was set up in 2019 to compensate victims of the scandal, yet they're yet to receive any of the compensation that they are due. Organisation Justice4Windrush has written an open letter to Downing Street, noting that 40 claimants have died before receiving compensation. Public figures such as AJ Tracey, Annie Lennox, Jay Blades, Colin McFarlane and Lady Doreen Lawrence have lent their efforts to the campaign.

Actor and campaigner Colin McFarlane commented: "The Home Office scandal that impacted the Windrush generation is not over. In 2022, a leaked internal report commissioned by the Home Office revealed that, 'during the period 1950-1981, every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK'.

"2012's hostile environment policy has exacerbated this institutional racism, resulting in over 15,000 victims and rising. The woeful 2019 compensation scheme has added insult to injury and merely prolonged the trauma and is yet another illustration of decades-long discrimination by the Home Office against migrants of colour. We need justice for the Windrush generation now."

Read more on the Justice4Windrush website below.