Diane Abbott slams government after three Windrush immigrants wrongly deported die in Caribbean
2 min read
Diane Abbott has hit out at Theresa May after it emerged that three members of the Windrush generation wrongly deported have died in the Caribbean.
Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson-Smith said they had passed away before UK officials had been able to contact them about returning to Britain.
Speaking to The Guardian, she said: "We have just received the information that they are dead. We have to find the families."
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said their deaths "shame this government and the Prime Minister".
She said: "Our fellow citizens dying thousands of miles from their homes, families and friends and our health service is the latest tragic injustice suffered by our fellow citizens as a direct result of the Tories’ hostile environment. The Prime Minister must personally apologise to their families and loved ones.
"The true scale of this scandal is still being revealed and the Home Office has not come clean about how many of the Windrush generation were deported. We still do not have the final figures of how many people were forced into so-called voluntary deportations, barred from re-entering the country after visiting family overseas or detained as prisoners in their own country.
"Labour will ensure that the Windrush generation get the justice they deserve. In government, we will end the Tories’ hostile environment to prevent these injustices being repeated."
A government review found that 18 members of the Windrush generation - who came to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s - may have been wrongly removed as part of an immigration clampdown.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The experiences faced by some members of the Windrush generation are completely unacceptable and I am committed to righting the wrongs of the past.
"I would like to personally apologise to those identified in our review and am committed to providing them with the support and compensation they deserve.
"We must do everything we can to ensure that nothing like this happens again – which is why I have asked an independent adviser to look at what lessons we can learn from Windrush."
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