A NATIONAL civil rights group is calling on the Home Secretary to commit to key recommendations made in a damning independent report into how victims of the Windrush scandal were treated.

The Black Equity Organisation (BEO) has been granted a judicial review to challenge the decision by the Home Office to drop three key recommendations from the Wendy Williams Windrush Lessons Learned Review into the scandal.

The legal challenge from BEO – which is being represented by Public Law Project – will be heard in the High Court on April 23.

But before the hearing, the leading Black civil rights UK organisation is urging the current home secretary James Cleverly to reverse the decision of his predecessor, Suella Braverman to drop these recommendations.

BEO’s Director of Legal Services, Kehinde Adeogan said: “The fact that BEO has been granted permission to intervene indicates that the Court accepts the historical mistreatment and discrimination of the Windrush generation is relevant to the legality of the (former) home secretary’s decision not to implement all the recommendations.

“The government must comply with and adhere to the principles of equalities law, including the Public Sector Equality Duty, and rights under the European Convention on Human Rights when making decisions. BEO applied to intervene in this case to argue that there was a failure by the government to apply those principles and rights and that the Windrush generation has been impacted as a result.”

Recommendations

The Windrush Scandal saw people from the Caribbean treated like ‘illegal immigrants’ by the Home Office despite arriving in Britain legally.

The review, by Wendy Williams, was published in March 2020. It outlined 30 recommendations for the Home Secretary to implement. However in January last year then home secretary Braverman announced to Parliament that she was not proceeding with three previously accepted recommendations.

These recommendations include running reconciliation events aimed at enabling victims of the scandal to articulate its impact on their lives in front of specialist services and senior Home Office staff, the introduction of a Migrants’ Commissioner, who would be responsible for advocating for the rights of migrants and a review of the role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI),

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Five years on, our determination to right the wrongs of the Windrush scandal remains as strong as ever and we have paid out more than £75m in compensation. We have also made significant progress since Wendy Williams’ review and our important work to implement her recommendations continues.

“The Windrush compensation scheme will remain open as long as it is needed, so no one is prevented from making a claim. We are continuing to reach out to, and engage with, communities across the UK to ensure that people have correct information on whether they may be eligible and have been impacted, and the necessary guidance to support their application.”