Irish Examiner view: An avoidable Irish Windrush

The National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station. The statue was designed by the Jamaican artist and sculptor Basil Watson.

Anyone familiar with the Windrush scandal, which began in 2018 and concerned people mainly of Caribbean origin who were wrongly detained in Britain, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases, wrongly deported from Britain, will get a chill when they consider the current immigration situation in Ireland.

In the case of the Windrush generation (so named after the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought the first wave of migrants to Britain from the West Indies in 1948), many had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, yet were detained, deported, lost jobs or homes, had passports confiscated, and were denied medical care and other benefits to which they were entitled. 

Ministers lost their jobs as a result of the scandal and in 2020 a review concluded that the Home Office had displayed “ignorance and thoughtlessness”, what had happened was “foreseeable and avoidable”, and that tightened immigration regulations had a “complete disregard for the Windrush generation”.

Historically, Ireland has had a wonderful record in reacting to humanitarian crises and as a nation we have raised hundreds of millions to support peoples left bereft by war, famine, and natural disaster. From Biafra to Haiti, to Bangladesh, Somalia, and so many other parts of the world, Irish generosity has helped ease the burden for those left by circumstance with nothing.

On the other side of the coin, controversy and scandal in the Irish charitable sector, which tainted our international reputation, and an immigration system that forced thousands of asylum seekers — people seeking succour after fleeing persecution in their home countries — into an inhuman and degrading direct provision system, painted a different picture of Irish charity. Irish intentions were good and proper, but our implementation of the system brought Ireland into conflict with human rights organisations. Direct provision was introduced as an emergency measure in 1999 and now, 23 years later, it has been shown to be a failed and ill-considered attempt to play our part in a global crisis.

In February 2021, the Government announced it would be ending direct provision by 2024, to widespread relief not only from the thousands of people who have been subjected to its vicissitudes, but also to Irish citizens who watched on in dismay at the manner in which we treated people who had come to our shores looking for benevolence. Now, with more than 40,000 Ukrainian refugees here, we are already looking at “foreseeable and avoidable” problems and have run into issues clouded by “ignorance and thoughtlessness”.

Let us hope Ireland is not facing its own Windrush scandal.