‘My role is to act as a trusted voice for Windrush victims’

Windrush commissioner Reverend Clive Foster has said he wants to act as a “trusted voice” for victims of the scandal.

The government announced on 18 June that Reverend Clive Foster, a senior pastor at the Pilgrim Church in Nottingham, had taken up the newly-created role on a three-year term.

Mr Foster told the BBC one of the first things he wants to “re-energise” is confidence, so that people who were wrongly labelled as illegal immigrants due to missing Home Office records can come forward and “get their status sorted out”.

The Home Office said the role would provide independent oversight of the government’s work to address the Windrush scandal.

Mr Foster said: “This whole scandal started because people could not prove their rights because of documents. So one of the things that I will be doing is actually raising the profile of people’s status – that they come forward.”

The Windrush scandal was first revealed in April 2018 when it emerged that the Home Office failed to keep records of people with indefinite leave to remain and had not issued the paperwork they needed to confirm their legal status.

Thousands of Caribbean migrants who came to the UK from the late 1940s legally had the right to remain in the UK.

But they were wrongly classed as illegal citizens because of a hostile immigration policy which meant they were denied access to homes, jobs and NHS care. Some were detained and deported.

Mr Foster said: “I am terribly angry that people who came here to rebuild the country, gave the best of their lives, find themselves in a situation where they feel like they’re going to be either deported, detained and denied access to services.

“This must never happen again.

“And so the Windrush Commissioner’s role is to work with the Home Office as an independent person to work towards that aim.”

Mr Foster, who is also the founder of the Nottingham Windrush Support Forum, told the BBC the Windrush compensation scheme has got to go “even further”.

So far the government has paid out more than £110m towards over 3,000 claims, according to latest Home Office data, but 15,000 people were thought to be eligible when it was set up in April 2019.

“We want people to recognise that there’s no shame in a claim, and that if they feel that they need to make that, they can get the support to do that as well,” said Mr Foster.

“I also think this is about not just compensation, but it’s about dignity and respect for people as well.”

The Home Office previously announced it had set up a £1.5m fund earlier this year to help affected individuals access compensation.

Mr Foster told the BBC at the end of his three-year term he wants people who have been “wrongly treated” to feel accepted for who they are as British citizens.

“There’s all sorts of other metrics, more people getting their status, more pay-outs in compensation,” he said.

“But ultimately, this is about dignity, fairness, and being accepted as a British citizen in their home country.”