‘I feel screwed by England’- J’can challenging UK over Windrush Scandal compensation
Raymond Lee, 67, first travelled to the UK as a child in 1971 where he lived for nearly 30 years but he was wrongly denied re-entry at Heathrow airport when he returned from a visit to Jamaica in July 1999.
Lee, who has since returned to Jamaica over fear of being detained again, is set to challenge the Home Office’s decision to refuse him compensation under the Windrush Compensation Scheme, according to The Independent.
Speaking from his home in Clarendon, Jamaica, Mr Lee says: “I feel disgusted by how I’ve been treated by the British government.
“Looking at my experience and others’, as highlighted in the Windrush scandal, it’s clear that things have gone right back to the Enoch Powell days… “My generation and people like my parents left the Caribbean and came to England to bring the country out of the gutter after World War II; as soon as that was done, they were turned against, used, abused and discarded by the British government as people who were not needed. It’s not nice; I feel screwed by England and rejected.”
Tore away from wife & 5 children
Lee’s 1999 denied re-entry tore him away from his then-wife and five children in the UK, after he forced to stay in Jamaica and although he later returned to the UK months later, the retired builder is seeking compensation for the impact that this had on his life.
Having eventually returned to the UK in 2000, Mr Lee was subsequently granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR). In 2009, he returned to Jamaica when his father became ill and died and since then, he has not returned to the UK, initially because he was afraid that he would be detained.
“The fact that I came to England as a child didn’t make a difference to immigration; they didn’t care about the fact that I went to school here, got married here, worked here and had all of my children,” Mr Lee told the Independent.
“Whilst I am pleased the High Court will review the compensation decision, it is a pity that I have had to go to these lengths just to get the fair treatment I deserve.”
In 2021, he applied to the Windrush Compensation Scheme seeking compensation for his detention and removal from the UK, loss of access to employment and the impact on his life caused by the failure to admit him to the UK in 1999, however, the Home Office rejected his claim on the assessment that his ILR had previously lapsed because he had been out of the country for two years before 1999.
Legal arguments set
However, Mr Lee’s lawyers argue that he did not need indefinite leave to remain as a citizen of a Commonwealth country and that he had the right of readmission to the UK as a returning resident, while adding that there was no evidence his status was even checked.
Solicitor Stephanie Hill of Leigh Day says: “Like so many members of the Windrush Generation, my client has experienced ill-treatment from the Home Office for many years.
Firstly, he was denied entry to the UK and sent to Jamaica, despite having first arrived in the UK as a child in the 1970s, “To compound this unfairness, he has since been denied compensation for the impact this had on his life. Our client will argue that the Home Office has failed to apply its own immigration law correctly and has taken an unreasonable approach to the evidence in this case,” the lawyer said.
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33 Responses to “‘I feel screwed by England’- J’can challenging UK over Windrush Scandal compensation”
Yard an see where that get he!
however...dont be too quick to judge. the rules are the same here...it doesnt matter if you arrives here as a child.....schooled here.....know no other place but here as home...you still have not rights...you still must apply for work permit exempt..you still must apply for residency...etc etc etc. compensation here ? ...never happen
Moreover, a country/region, etc, needs consumers/ population for the economy to grow m, sustain, etc. Lee Kuan Yew, the father of and long-serving Prime Minister of Singapore who led Singapore from a small impoverished nation at independence in 1965 to today a bustling economic powerhouse, noted in the book Lee Kuan Yew: “ “Throughout history all empires that succeeded have embraced and included in their midst people of other races, languages, religion, and cultures.”
I hear of a lady been here 24 years, married to a belonger, with 3 BVIslander children with a Work Permit Exemption kicked out and fined $500 because she did not know the latest rules for changing jobs.
And who was changing jobs due to sexual harassment.
And no , a work permit exemption does not allow you to change jobs when you like
The Gestapo have to give permission.
Its Indentures Servitude , as close to slavery as it gets.
And this is HEADLINE NEWS in the Virgin Islands! How many migrants in this tiny territory (not a country of 70 million like the UK) have been denied status 28 years after arrival? PLENTY!
Does this mean we migrants in the Virgin Islands whose legal rights have been ignored are going to be compensated by the Virgin Islands? Or by the UK, the responsible administering power?
Do migrants here get to call the situation "racist"?
Does it mean we migrants in that boat get to call ourselves the "LIAT generation" (instead of "Windrush generation")?
"if the process is being followed". Indeed; that's an important point. A process is supposed to be followed. The process concerned is a process prescribed BY LAW. The LAW has been ignored and the rights of migrants established by LAW trampled upon. If in doubt about that, perhaps read the COI report?