Britain Wednesday paid tribute to Windrush Caribbean immigrants by unveiling a national monument to celebrate their work in rebuilding the country after World War 11.
In a written message, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth said the new statue was a “fitting thank you to the Windrush pioneers and their descendants, in recognition of the profound contribution they have made to the United Kingdom over the decades”.
The new arrivals were called the “Windrush generation” after the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought the first 500 migrants to British shores in 1948.
In 2018, the Windrush scandal revealed that thousands of Caribbean migrants who had lived and worked legally for decades were ensnared by tough new rules designed to crack down on illegal immigration.
Scores lost their jobs, homes and the right to free medical care because they didn’t have the paperwork to prove their status. Some were detained, and an unknown number were deported to countries they barely remembered.
Britain’s government later apologized and offered compensation, but many have complained that the claiming process is too cumbersome and the payments offered aren’t high enough to make up for the harm done by the British government.
Prince William and his wife, Kate, unveiled the statue depicting a man, woman and child standing atop suitcases at London’s Waterloo train station.
Williams in his address highlighted the racism faced by thousands who journeyed to Britain in the post-war years, and said it still affects their descendants in modern-day Britain.
“Discrimination remains an all too familiar experience for Black men and women in Britain in 2022,” he said, referring to a British government scandal that “profoundly wronged” tens of thousands who traveled to Britain between 1948 and 1973 after the government called on colonies to send workers amid post-war labor shortages.
“Alongside celebrating the diverse fabric of our families, our communities, and our society as a whole — something the Windrush generation has contributed so much to — it is also important to acknowledge the ways in which the future they sought and deserved has yet to come to pass,” William said.
The government, which provided one million pounds (One British Pound=US$1.22 cents) to fund the statue, said the monument is meant to be a “permanent place of reflection.”
London said it “symbolizes the courage, commitment, and resilience of the thousands of men, women, and children who traveled to the U.K. to start new lives from 1948 to 1971”.
Next year marks 75 years since the arrival of the Empire Windrush in Essex, near London, bringing workers and children from the Caribbean.
CMC/
