For years people of the Windrush generation have lived in Britain as respected and valued citizens, however now they are facing rejection from jobs, being declined for pensions and some even face deportation.

The “Windrush generation” refers to a ship that docked on the 22nd June 1948 carrying many workers from islands such as Tobago, Jamaica and Trinidad. All of these workers were brought to the UK due to the labour shortages after the war. Since then, generations of families have made their homes here in the UK, but in a failed bid to eradicate illegal immigrants, they are now being discriminated against as they cannot provide the adequate paper work from 70 years ago.

In light of this, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, has been forced to resign due to her mishandling of the people in the Windrush generation. After insisting several times that she had no awareness of the targets for deportation, a confidential document was later leaked that exposed her statement to be false. In the letter, Ms Rudd wrote to the prime minister, Theresa May, explaining that she had the “aim of increasing the number of enforced removals by more than 10% over the next few years”. The new Home Secretary called Sajid Javid has now been appointed, and he has affirmed that this critical situation is very personal to him as he himself as a Pakistani could have been made to face deportation as well.

Following Rudd’s resignation, attention will now inevitably shift to the Prime Minister herself, Theresa May, as people question her role in the matter. Theresa May has made a sincere apology, stating that she is “genuinely sorry for any anxiety that has been caused”, and in response to her personal apology, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness said “we accept the Prime Minister's apology”.

In the same month there has been a shocking broadcast by the BBC as they aired the April 1968 speech “Rivers of Blood” by Enoch Powell. In this speech, Enoch Powell expresses his racist and dehumanising beliefs that Britain should stop letting black immigrants enter the country. At one point he says “In this country in fifteen or twenty years’ time the black man will have the whip hand over the white”. The fact that the BBC thought it acceptable to broadcast such a speech is horrifying enough, but combined with the recent Windrush crisis, the timing of this broadcast seems extraordinary. Many people have protested against the BBC’s careless and offensive action, however no dramatic changes were made.