It was disappointing that Mary Seacole was not selected by the Bank of England on the next £50 note but we should we be proud that the Bank of Notes Colour Campaign raised the profile on BAME representation on Bank Notes.
As we celebrate International Women's Month and the Day we must remember the plight of all women especially those caught in the Windrush Scandal.
As we approach the 2nd anniversary of the Windrush Scandal in April 2020 we must remember the public support where over 180,000 people signed my UK government petition demanding to establish an amnesty for anyone who was a minor that came to Britain between 1948 to 1973. The media stories of the victims sharing experiences of the hostile environment and the lobbying of Caribbean diplomats and race equality and migrant charities all contributed to a perfect storm to force the government not only to apologise but to publicly humiliated at an international level by causing one of the biggest human right abuses of British citizens since WW2.
In April 2019 the government launched the Windrush Compensation Scheme in response to the Windrush Scandal. But as recently as January 2020 only 36 cases had been awarded compensation - out of 1000 applications so far.
The compensation scheme was meant to help people get their lives back on track and for the government to acknowledge and apologise in how they abused the rights of Black British Citizens. But instead the scheme has been far too complicated for victims to use, with very little support for those making claims.
This has affected people's entire lives, like Stephanie O ‘Connor and her siblings are still coming to terms as result of the death of their mother Sarah O’Connor who at the age of 57 died of hypertension in September 2018 as result of the stress involved in losing her job and facing bankruptcy. Sarah came to Britain in 1967 as a six-year-old and worked for most of her life till losing her job in 2017. Stephanie states:
‘The Windrush scandal impacted my mum, Sarah not only on her health but emotionally. Before the scandal was exposed, she felt on her own and like she had done something wrong despite contributing to the country for many years. For my mum the compensation scheme has come too late and I’m so disappointed that it is still taking this long for people to get what is owed to them. I just hope that people get compensated fairly for everything that they have been through. This scandal has ruined people’s lives and in today’s world it is terrible that we have allowed that to happen to this extent.’
That is why I have launched a new petition We are calling on the government to improve the Windrush compensation scheme by doing three things:
1: Make the compensation scheme process easier by considering independence and accessibility.
2: Put a substantial amount of funding into the scheme to support grass roots and voluntary sector services that run outreach and support programmes for survivors in the UK, Africa and the Caribbean on legal assistance, advocacy and emotional well-being.
3: Include a full apology letter with every single compensation letter.
It would be great to have your support in signing and sharing the link to your networks. We hope to collect 100,000 signatures that people caught in the Windrush Scandal can present this to Boris Johnson.
Thanks for your support so far
Patrick Vernon OBE