Problem with the windrush generation none of them ever applied for citizenship which is why they are now being deported because the current government won’t explain to them that if they can show they worked here and attempted to get an NI number (even a temp one, like foreign workers have to) and they paid NI cotributions or attempted to then they are eligible for citizenship.
Mate, they came here AS CITIZENS.
“Most of the “Windrush generation”, so-called after the first ship which arrived from Jamaica in 1948, consisted of citizens of the UK and Colonies, a form of citizenship conferred by the British Nationality Act 1948, and also known as Commonwealth citizenship.There were no immigration restrictions on these people entering the UK at that time; they were known as the “freely landed“. In fact, as Colin says, they “were allowed to live and work anywhere within the territories of the United Kingdom and Colonies. There was total freedom of movement”.“ [x]
Then in 1971 the Immigration Act was formed, to restrict immigration, as before then, any citizen of the commonwelth could come and live here, but those already present and settled in the UK when the Act came into force on 1 January 1973 – i.e. those without any restriction on their leave – were automatically entitled to stay indefinitely in the UK under the Immigration Act 1971 section 1(2).
They are citizens. They were citizens. They will always be citizens. The problem is that the government then thought that everyone fucking knew that so didn’t give out any paperwork and now Theresa May has created a “hostile environment” which means they need more proof than any one human could ever accrue. I mean honestly, do you think an elderly person could easily afford the £229 application fee for a NTL biometric residence permit (which is what, thanks to Theresa May, is required for them to not be deported)?
And if they could afford that, do you think they could manage to scrape together “proof” when the bar is so ridiculously high as to require:
- evidence of Commonwealth citizenship
- arrival in the UK
- that they were “‘ordinarily resident” on 1 January 1973 (this would be shown by being a minor and a Commonwealth citizen on arrival)
- no absence from the UK since 1988 for over two years
- That they are still ordinarily resident at the time of the application (broadly, evidence needs to be provided that the applicant has been in the UK for the past five years)
Like, I dunno about you, but I’ve not met anyone who has kept documents around for something they never thought they’d need, for 45 years. But apparently they should have done.
Have some damned sympathy mate. This is NOT their fault. This is a fucking travesty.