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As the dinghy entered British waters, we approached it. There were 13 people on board. I have to say that one or two of them were pretty aggressive towards us. The vast majority of passengers were young men of fighting age, leading me to conclude that a principal reason for their flight is that they are dodging conscription. It is also entirely possible that some of those arriving were part of the defeated ISIS caliphate army. A sobering thought. Before long, the Dover lifeboat and Border Force had arrived and they were then taxied back into Dover to begin their new life in England. The ease with which these people are welcomed into Britain as though they are in need, despite having left an equally safe European country an hour or two earlier, makes me so angry.

Although Britain has given France 61 million of taxpayers money since 2015 to stop this scam, the French continue to blame us for somehow creating this situation. The difference is, they are acting now in an even more underhand and deceitful way. Reports that the Home Office has contacted Roman Quaedvlieg, the former head of Australias border force, to consult him on potential measures to halt the illegal boats is a start. However, I would suggest going even further and asking Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister of Australia, to come and help Priti Patel directly. Mr Abbott is well disposed towards this country and he knows from experience that crises such as this one are, in the end, down to political will. His experience in handling illegal immigration into Australia by sea would prove invaluable.

The traffickers are now using Brexit as their key selling point. If we do not, as I hope, extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020, I predict there will be a massive influx this summer. For this reason, our politicians cannot wait until the end of transition for new legislation. Priti Patel must act now.

The vast majority of Westminsters politicians and our mainstream media organisations may think this issue is unimportant. As my report from the Channel last week showed, however, the public care about this very deeply. Believe it or not, there are many sound and legitimate reasons for caring about ones own country, whatever myths the Islington elite chooses to peddle. Priti Patel must not forget this.

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The French are now trying to cover up their collusion in this illegal immigration scam - Telegraph.co.uk

Republicans in Pennsylvanias 7th Congressional District will decide Tuesday who they want to run against U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, the incumbent Democrat who is seeking a second two-year term.

The GOP candidates, Lisa Scheller and Dean Browning, have had to wage unconventional campaigns as the threat of the COVID-19 coronavirus illness has all but nixed traditional ways to meet voters.

Theyre not going door to door because they dont want to be in contact with people, theyre not going to even like any spaghetti dinners or any firemens nights, said Lee Snover, chairwoman of the Northampton County Republican Committee. So no ones meeting them.

Both candidates spoke with lehighvalleylive.com this week for this look at who they are, their top concerns and what their goals would be if elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The PA-07 district covers Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties.

Scheller and Browning also touched on how they're getting their word out.

Browning, who fell short in the Lehigh Valley's 2018 congressional primary to Marty Nothstein before Wild went on to victory, said he had counted on "what I view as my strength, which is my ground game -- going door to door, going to events ... and of course toward the end of March all of that was put on hold."

He's turned to phone calls and "lit drops," where campaign staff wearing masks and socially distancing themselves have been dropping off literature about Browning at voters' homes.

"Certainly the pandemic has had an impact on campaigning," Scheller said, noting she misses the grassroots campaigning she's been involved in. She's been doing phone calls, as well as doing outreach with groups via Zoom, she said.

"It's made it very difficult," she said. "I do spend a lot of time on the phone calling people."

Both Scheller and Browning are former Lehigh County commissioners. Here is a closer look at their candidacies.

Lisa Scheller is running for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania's June 2, 2020, primary election to face Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in November in the 7th Congressional District covering Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

Scheller is coming into Tuesdays election as President Donald Trumps favorite in the race, having picked up his endorsement a week ago.

She is chairwoman and president of Silberline Manufacturing, the business owned by her family where shes worked since 1987 and which she took control of following the death of her brother in 1998. The company has its global headquarters in Tamaqua in Schuylkill County, where Scheller grew up; it makes aluminum-based pigments for the automotive and other industries.

"The No. 1 issue facing Americans and facing Pennsylvanians in PA-07 right now is jobs and the economy," Scheller said. "As a business owner myself, I understand the struggle that people are going through with this coronavirus."

After the initial, necessary focus on keeping safe, Scheller said her first priority in office would be to work with the president to help put America back on track and back to work.

Since the coronavirus crisis began in March, Pennsylvanias unemployment rate has reached an unprecedented 15.1% and Lehigh and Northampton counties have seen nearly 80,000 people file initial claims for unemployment compensation.

Schellers other key issues, she said, are expanding education opportunities without financially burdening those who can least afford it, opposing abortion, supporting Second Amendment rights, securing the nations borders and opposing so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to assist in federal crackdowns on illegal immigration. With 38 years of continuing recovery from drug addiction, she also wants to take on opioid addiction, expanding on the Hope and Coffee shop she opened in Tamaqua with a mission of eliminating the stigma for those battling addiction.

"I'm running for U.S. Congress to be the voice of Pa.'s 7th District in Washington, and really to protect the American dream for generations to come," Scheller said.

That dream is threatened by government overreach, she said, pointing as an example to government attempts to manage health care through the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Obamacare, as its known, has been under attack throughout the Trump Administration. Moving to Medicare for All, as some Democrats advocate, would further impact costs and accessibility, Scheller says.

Scheller says she's not a politician, that she's an engineer and business owner who got involved in politics because she wanted to lower Lehigh County's taxes.

She is a divorced mother of two grown children, Leo and Zary, and lives in Allentown.

Dean Browning is running for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania's June 2, 2020, primary election to face Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susan Wild in November in the 7th Congressional District covering Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com

The very simple reason that Im running is I believe that America is a great country, and Im running to be an ally of Mr. Trump and be someone he can absolutely count on as he battles to keep America great, Browning said.

The candidate committed to helping to push Trumps agenda through Congress, working first to repair the economy from the impacts of the coronavirus fight. He says that damage is growing worse the longer the shutdown continues.

I understand the closing down to quote flatten the curve, Browning said, "... but my view is were well beyond that.

Browning said he supports a payroll tax holiday that would give workers a nearly 8% raise by suspending contributions of 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare/Medicaid, while saving employers a comparable amount on their own contributions.

"The second area that I want to work with and support the president on is reducing the critical threat from China," said Browning, who sees two avenues toward that objective. One is the military, for which he supports expanded investments in training and technology, and the second is the economy: "We need to start returning vital manufacturing back to the United States."

"They are not interested in being a responsible member of the world community," Browning said. "They are interested in being the dominant member of the world economy."

"The third area I want to work with the president on is finishing the wall," Browning said, going on to say he'd work to secure the southern border and eliminate federal funding for sanctuary cities and counties as part of a plan to reduce illegal immigration.

Returning to his support for the military, Browning called for an overhaul of the Veterans Administration that he says is using an antiquated system and suffering from a shortage of doctors. "A disgrace" is how he described the medical care afforded to veterans.

Brownings other main focus would be to make health care more affordable and put individuals and families in charge of their health care decisions, not insurance companies or the government. He sees the need for more competition through transparency, so patients know how the amount theyre paying for care compares to that being charged to someone on Medicare or Medicaid or who is uninsured. As for Medicare for All, he points to the VA system for an advanced look at what that would mean.

"To me, Medicare for All would just wind up being mediocre care for all," Browning said.

Browning, of South Whitehall Township, is retired from a career as an executive with Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of the Lehigh Valley, Harvel Plastics and New World Aviation.

He and his wife, Cheryl, have been married 32 years. They own three German shorthaired pointers.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Its Trumps pick vs. Trump loyalist in bid to unseat the Lehigh Valleys congresswoman - lehighvalleylive.com

A fantasy preview screening of the BBCs powerful new drama Sitting in Limbo would have a handful of home secretaries lined up in the front row: Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel with David Cameron invited to sit alongside them. Further back, there would be places for the civil servants who devised immigration policy over the past decade, senior immigration enforcement officers and the governors of Britains immigration detention centres.

This memorable evening will, of course, never happen because of lockdown, and possibly also because this isnt how the BBC organises its screenings. But I hope that these politicians and officials force themselves to watch the one-off drama at home when it airs in early June. They may find it uncomfortable viewing.

In 90 minutes, it tells the story of Anthony Bryan, 62, a builder who was mistakenly classified as an illegal immigrant by the Home Office in 2015, just as the government turned up the volume on its hostile environment policies, introduced to cut immigration numbers by making it very difficult for those without the correct documentation to continue living in Britain. Bryan was sacked from his job, twice arrested and twice sent to immigration removal centres, where he spent a total of five weeks, before being booked on a plane to Jamaica, a country he hasnt visited since he moved (entirely legally) to London as an eight-year-old in 1965.

The drama, beautifully written by Bryans younger brother, the novelist Stephen Thompson, captures the catastrophic consequences of getting placed on the Home Office list of suspected illegal immigrants.

The casually sceptical language used by Home Office staff during their many interviews with Bryan is hard to listen to in the film. They repeatedly suggest he is lying when he sets out his life story. They refer to his children as his alleged children, and the headteacher who has dug up a photo of him at primary school in the 1960s as the man you claim is your ex-headmaster.

Im just doing my job, one of the officials tells him. It doesnt matter that your job ruins peoples lives? Bryan asks.

I watched the film with a rising fury, and was immensely upset by it, which is surprising because Im already very familiar with the story. I met Bryan and his partner, Janet McKay, in December 2017, days after he had been released from his second stint in immigration detention, when he was still fighting a deportation order. His son had contacted the Guardian after reading about another long-term UK resident, Paulette Wilson, who had also arrived in the UK from Jamaica as a child in the 1960s and who had also been sent to immigration detention and was trying to fight off deportation to a country she hadnt visited since she was 10.

During a long interview, Bryan mentioned that he knew several other people who were being similarly harassed by the Home Office: friends from childhood who had also been misclassified as illegal immigrants, had been sacked from their jobs and were struggling to prove a mistake had been made. Over the next few weeks, he and McKay put me in touch with Hubert Howard, Tyrone McGibbon and Jeffrey Miller, all of whom had moved to the UK legally from Jamaica in the 1960s. Interviews with them and dozens of others triggered a government apology, Rudds resignation and multiple promises to set things right.

Two years on, things have not been resolved. The last figures published show that only 36 people affected have received compensation (totalling 63,000 from a pot that officials expected to pay out between 200m and 500m). Bryan is still waiting.

The actor Patrick Robinson, who plays Bryan, says he was in tears as he read the script. I knew this was happening to lots of people, he says. I wanted to be involved with the film in any shape or form.

The arguments our parents had in the 1950s and 1960s I never thought we would be fighting them again

Robinson had a friend, Junior Green, who was refused re-entry into Britain after visiting Jamaica, despite having lived in the UK for 60 years, since arriving as a five-month-old. Green missed his mothers funeral while he was stuck in Jamaica for five months, trying to persuade officials that he was British and should be allowed to travel home.

I was aware of it before it hit the news. The whole West Indian community was just collateral damage in the debate on immigration. The governments apologies are like putting a little piece of sticking plaster on a great big, gaping, festering wound, he says.

His portrayal of Bryans shifting emotions, from bemusement to desperation to silently mounting rage, is extremely moving. Robinson says his performance was fuelled by his anger at a scandal that could easily have touched his own family. His parents came from Jamaica in the 1960s; his four older siblings were born in Jamaica, while he and two younger children were born in the UK, where his father tried to continue his career as an electrician, but later accepted work as a bus driver. He kept getting laid off. Was it racism? Probably. He wouldnt speak much about it. The history of people coming to the so-called motherland, and the history of double-standards that followed, is very close to me.

Bryan is worried that most people have already forgotten the Windrush scandal, which is why he is so pleased that the film has been made. People find it hard to believe that this happened. They cant believe that I went through all that after 50 years here. People still trust the government; they just cant believe they would do this to someone.

He hopes the drama will imprint the scale of what went wrong in the minds of a new audience. He found revisiting the scenes in immigration detention especially painful. It is so close to what I went through. I hope people will watch and understand the trauma, he says. He wants to emphasise that his is just one story that illustrates what thousands have been through, and hopes that the film will push the issue back on to the political agenda. Id like immigration people to watch this to see what they put so many people through people who shouldnt be locked up in the first place.

The film opens with a clip of Theresa May, when she was home secretary, standing behind a podium marked with the slogan For Hardworking People, announcing in an eminently reasonable tone: The government will soon publish the immigration bill which will make it easier to get rid of people with no right to be here. We see the then prime minister, David Cameron, remarking: We would like to see net immigration in the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands. And we hear him self-righteously declaring: You put into Britain, you dont just take out.

Bryan and Thompsons mother, Lucille, who put a lot into the UK during her time working as a cleaner in an east London hospital, appears on screen shortly afterwards. She struggles to understand why her son has been arrested. Bryan says: My mum used to say: Why are the police arresting you? You must have done something wrong. For a while, when everyone was questioning his story, he began to doubt his own memories.

It made me angry again watching it, McKay (who is played by Nadine Marshall) says. I think it will make people get up in arms against the Home Office and the system when they see the injustice.

Thompson recalls his horror when McKay called him in 2016 to tell him that his older brother had been arrested. I thought there must have been a mistake; I couldnt get my head around the idea of deportation. It had seemed to be a case of mistaken identity, and felt like a vague, nonserious threat until Janet made it quite clear that he would be deported. He watched what Bryan was going through, as the whole family rallied to try to get him out of detention.

He has reassessed his sense of how far Britain has moved on from the racism endured by his parents generation on arrival from the Caribbean. The arguments our parents had in the 1950s and 1960s I never thought we would be fighting them again; I thought we had won those arguments.

Last year, he spent days talking to Bryan, nudging him out of a stoical refusal to dwell on his mistreatment. He was very forthcoming on the facts, but he had to be cajoled into opening up personally. Its not just about losing your job, cant pay your bills, cant claim benefits. There has been a real emotional cost, too, and as he has gone along, he has become more open about the effects of it.

Thompsons film shows Bryan enduring all the exhausting humiliations of a system that is designed to grind people into submission: the interminable queueing at Home Office reporting centres, where officials wont listen to you, and if they do arent inclined to believe what you say; the hours wasted on hold to call centres in search of officials who might help; the financial difficulties that follow from being sacked, and told you arent eligible for benefits (despite having paid UK taxes for years); the embarrassment of having to rely on your children for food. It is a shattering portrait of a system that aims to wear its targets down until they begin to think the idea of self-deportation (back to a country they havent been to for half a century) is possibly the most sensible way out.

He got a sense that, no matter what documentation he provided, it was not going to help, Thompson says. He worries that the long delay in paying compensation is beginning to take its toll on Bryan. My brother is naturally the forgiving and accepting type; he doesnt do embittered. But the unfortunate reality is that the longer this goes on, and the longer the government drags its heels over the next stage, it will be hard for him to stay that way. There has been a slow, steady erosion of his desire to see the good in everything, he says.

He is trying to be patient, but the truth is that they are in very, very bad straits financially. He feels let down.

Ive been talking to McKay and Bryan periodically for two and a half years (and for a few startling seconds towards the end of the film, Im figuratively on screen with them, played by Anna Madeley, somehow made to look disconcertingly like me). Ive also witnessed a shift from optimism to disillusionment as the compensation process drags on.

Nothing here has been exaggerated. In some ways, the films strength lies in its subtlety. Many other Windrush victims had even more extreme experiences exiled for years in unfamiliar countries, forced into destitution or made homeless.

And the Windrush issues explored here remain acutely relevant. It was the same hostile environment priorities that prompted the government in 2015 to introduce the NHS surcharge (which was partly withdrawn last week amid anger at the number of international healthcare staff forced to pay to access the NHS services they were working to provide and already paying taxes to fund). These policies also meant a Commonwealth veteran (who had served the British army for a decade in Afghanistan and Iraq) was this month charged 27,000 for an emergency operation to remove a brain tumour. Despite all the apologies, none of the legislation that underpins it has been repealed.

Ideally, the fantasy screening of this film would also see invitations sent to those affected. The BBC might need to book a larger venue to have room for the 12,000 people who have been granted documentation by the Windrush Taskforce over the past two years, proving that they are not (and never were) illegal immigrants. Invitations should go to people such as Trevor Johnson, who was forced to beg on the streets of south London to feed his children, after officials decided he was here illegally, and Joycelyn John, who was frightened by years of Home Office intimidation into accepting a voluntary removal back to Grenada, a country she had left aged four, 53 years earlier. At the end of the screening, there would be time for politicians to discuss the film with them. It would be a powerful way of making sure that lessons are finally learned.

Sitting in Limbo is on BBC One on Monday 8 June at 8.30pm, and then on iPlayer. Amelia Gentlemans book The Windrush Betrayal has been shortlisted for the Orwell prize

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My mum said, Why are the police arresting you? You must have done something: the scandal behind TV's new Windrush drama - The Guardian

Connecticut knows Geno Auriemma as a man for all seasons, especially the basketball season, a voice to provoke us, soothe us, humor us on most any topic.

We ask the Hall of Fame coach things, different things, everything. UConn even asked him to be a virtual commencement speaker when COVID-19 prevented anyone from attending graduation live. Yes, he can even entertain an empty room.

People are asking me what Ive discovered during this quarantine thing, Auriemma said Wednesday. I discovered Superman isnt Clark Kent. Jack Bauer is Superman.

This shows you how whacky my life has been all these years. Im watching 24 for the first time. How old is that TV show? It started 18-19 years ago. Im up to Season 6. How far were they ahead of the times? They had two black presidents before Obama. Im fascinated by the level of technology (in counterterrorism). If thats what was happening in 2002, what in Gods name is happening today at those places?

While the sports world waits, Auriemma has become more dedicated to his workouts. The golf course is one place hes still allowed to be himself and not have to talk to anybody. He learned how to Zoom and now hes dangerously close to being Zoomed out. He learned how to do Instagram Live, has done a few of those. The other day there was a glitch on Villanova coach Jay Wrights end, caused a bunch of complaints and led Auriemma to say, Ive noticed people are really mean on social media.

He goes on eating the same things for breakfast and lunch. He throws on the same pair of pants.

My biggest realization the past 21/2 months, Auriemma said, is how little I need to live on.

After Auriemma was asked to give the graduation speech earlier this month, he had a conversation with his 88-year-old mom Marciella.

In her own Italian way, she was telling me why she hates whats going on and how God is mad at everybody, Auriemma said. Shes like, Our time is over. This is horrible for the kids. She was distraught about what she was seeing on TV and how her granddaughter and great-granddaughter had to speak to her through the screen door.

He tried to offer his mom some perspective.

Im like, When you were 13-14 you were chased out of your house by the German soldiers and you and your brothers and sisters went up in the mountain and built a shelter and lived there for a couple weeks. You thought it would never end and no one would survive it and you did.

Every Italian family in America had two portraits in their house: Pope John XXIII and JFK. Shes in the U.S. for two years and JFK is assassinated. She sent me to school wondering if a nuclear bomb was going to hit. Were hiding under our desks. We thought the world was coming to an end.

Through the Great Depression, World War II, the decade of Vietnam and Civil Rights, 9/11 and now to high school and college seniors in 2020, Auriemma had this message for UConn graduates, for all young people:

Generations are defined by the events of that time. All those people figured out a way to learn from it and make something better out of what happened. You will look back at this as a monumental time. You are being thrown into a dangerous situation for you in the world, very uncomfortable. This is an opportunity for people today to be on the cutting edge of something to change the world.

Do I need to go to the mall three times a week? Do I really need to be online ordering more stuff? How much can I do without? What am I willing to do to change? What am I doing for other people? What am I doing to make my neighborhood better? Am I going to be responsible, stay home when Im supposed to and wear a mask?

Auriemma, 66, immigrated to the U.S. when he was a kid. Americans, he said, are similar to Italians in one sense: When laws are passed in Italy, each Italian thinks they have the right to decide if the law applies to them. In the case of COVID-19, having learned a hard, deadly lesson, Italians bought into social distancing and masks.

Americans are so individualistic, the entire basis of this country is individual freedom. If I dont want to wear a mask I dont have to wear a mask. You dont have to if you dont want. However, if you not wearing a mask makes me sick, you are disgrace to humanity.

We all have this vision of whats best for us? Always. Always. Whats best for me? When I vote its what is best for me. I never take in account the bigger picture. I have been thinking about this and its funny how it works. Im thinking people wont vote against giving teachers a raise anymore. After teaching their kids in their own house for two months, every single parent is going, These teachers arent getting paid enough. My kids are jerks. And now youre saying this poor teacher has to deal with my kid and everyone elses kid. God bless them.

Auriemma was a political science major. He loves history, loves to read about it. From Caesar to Napoleon to Kennedy, you name it. He is haunted by what he sees today.

You come across an idea now and you go this is a great idea, Auriemma said. But then someone goes, If you do that, it will label you a Democrat, a liberal. Just because I like the idea? This is a great concept. Lets try it. Well, that means youre a Republican, a conservative. Why? Why cant I have thoughts that fluctuate as I try to balance my feelings about what is right or what I prefer. Why cant I be somewhere in the middle?

Why cant I say I like some things in Column A and some in Column B. But if I like something in Column A, it doesnt mean I hate everyone in Column B. Thats the world adults have created for our kids. Were raising a whole generation of people who dont trust anything about anybody, anywhere, anytime. Or the opposite. They trust everything someone says regardless whether its true or not. There is no, let me figure out what parts are part of my belief system.

Auriemma stops to ask whatever happened to a great moderate Republican or a conservative Democrat? He continues on his roll.

We have allowed people the freedom that this country entitles you to ruin our lives in so many ways, Auriemma said. You have the freedom to do it. The Constitution allows you to ruin my life. The Constitution gives the president the freedom to go on television and essentially accuse someone of murder. Theres no repercussion. None. Zero. That used to be unthinkable.

And now we have a blink-of-the-eye mentality. You look real quick and turn away before you see the negative. Or you look real quick and you see tremendous negatives but if you stayed a little longer you would have seen the positives. Were not conditioned to that anymore. Were conditioned to react to the first thing we see and forget doing any kind of research or future reading. So here we are.

Yes, here we are with Geno the restaurant owner. One who recently closed Genos Grille in Storrs. One who owns Caf Aura in Manchester that has donated many meals to healthcare workers.

This is all you need to know about what Im talking about, he said. Someone posted a review of a restaurant on one of those review boards. The restaurant hadnt even opened yet.

He was a dishwasher in high school. He worked as a bartender. He stocked supermarket shelves from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. He drove a truck delivering produce. Got into Philly at 5 a.m. He saw what the supply side looked like and what those workers are paid in order for people to have food on their table or a meal at a restaurant.

But youre a kid and you made life better for yourself because you had a couple of bucks in your pocket, Auriemma said. From owning a restaurant, I see there are people working those jobs who are tying to raise a family, pay a mortgage, send their kid to school, pay health insurance.

The restaurant business brings to life how widespread the tentacles are when a restaurant closes, when the restaurant industry goes into the kind of downfall that it has. What the effects are. What I learned is there is no going back to where we were in some cases.

That doesnt mean the permanent end of a New York-style restaurant where people are sitting close together. That will return at some point.

You cant have everyone sitting six feet apart with plexiglass between forever, Auriemma said. If we wanted that Id go to an office building and ask someone if I can use their cubicle. Thats not happening. Whats going to change is how we treat people who stock shelves, cashiers, servers, cooks. A lot of the restaurant people I know in the business, we laugh at this immigration policy. Listen, Im an immigrant. I came to America from across the ocean. There was no sneaking in for me. I cant swim the length of a pool.

I understand the uproar on illegal immigration. Im a big proponent that weve got to fix the whole system. But anyone who thinks theyre going into any service industry sees the value of what they bring with goods and services. How these people actually live and try to survive. Were going to have to figure out a way to value jobs that to this point were seen as non-essential or inconsequential. The guy who delivers your packages, your mail, the bus driver, the train conductor, anybody who gets up every morning to makes sure your life is better that we tend to take for granted.

Auriemma went over to Rentschler Field with his staff recently to help Foodshare distribute goods to those in need during the pandemic. His eyes were opened by the long lines.

To see all the people come through looking for a way to eat that week, Auriemma said. Somebody at the end of February was OK, paying rent, getting in their car going to work, and a couple of months later they have none of it.

History is rife with underrepresented, underappreciated masses of people rising up and changing the world they live in. I dont give a damn if you go back to the Roman Empire, the American and French revolutions. The word is built on societies that are sick and tired of one group of people deciding the fate of the other three quarters of the people. At some point its going to get like the movie Network: I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore! Thats what Ive learned through this.

jeff.jacobs@hearstmediact.com; @jeffjacobs123

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Jeff Jacobs: What Geno Auriemma has learned about himself and society during the pandemic - CT Insider

Only 60 people have received Windrush compensation payments during the first year of the schemes operation, with just 360,000 distributed from a fund officials expected might be required to pay out between 200m and 500m.

There has been rising concern among support groups working with those affected by the Home Office scandal about the slowness of compensation offers, and about the difficulties experienced by those trying to claim.

One individual has received a payment of more than 100,000, which suggests the other 59 people who have been granted compensation will have received relatively low payouts averaging 4,400, according to figures released on Thursday. The Home Office has stressed that many of these are interim payments, and people will likely receive further instalments at a later date.

By the end of March, 1,275 people had applied under the scheme. Many of those who are still waiting for compensation remain in difficult financial circumstances, as a direct result of their treatment by the Home Office when they were mistakenly classified as being in the UK illegally, as a result of the hostile environment against illegal immigration introduced by Theresa May, when she was home secretary from 2010 onwards.

Who are the Windrush generation?

They are people who arrived in the UK after the second world war from Caribbean countries at the invitation of the British government. The first group arrived on the ship MV Empire Windrush in June 1948.

What happened to them?

An estimated 50,000 people faced the risk of deportation if they had never formalised their residency status and did not have the required documentation to prove it.

Why now?

It stems from a policy, set out by Theresa May when she was home secretary,to make the UK 'a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants'. It requires employers, NHS staff, private landlords and other bodies to demand evidence of peoples citizenship or immigration status.

Why do they not have the correct paperwork and status?

Some children, often travelling on their parents passports, were never formally naturalised and many moved to the UK before the countries in which they were born became independent, so they assumed they were British. In some cases, they did not apply for passports. The Home Office did not keep a record of people entering the country and granted leave to remain, which was conferred on anyone living continuously in the country since before 1 January 1973.

What did the government try and do to resolve the problem?

A Home Office teamwas set up to ensure Commonwealth-born long-term UK residents would no longer find themselves classified as being in the UK illegally. But a month after one minister promised the cases would be resolved within two weeks,many remained destitute. In November 2018 home secretary Sajid Javid revealed that at least 11 Britons who had been wrongly deported had died. In April 2019 the government agreed to pay up to 200m in compensation.

Many were sacked, and subsequently found themselves ineligible for unemployment benefits despite having paid taxes for decades. Some people were evicted from their homes because they built up arrears as a result of being sacked. More than 160 people were mistakenly detained or removed from the country, and sent back to countries they had left as children decades earlier. Many are waiting for compensation payments, so they can repay debts accrued during that period of enforced unemployment.

Some applicants have described being asked to provide very high levels of documentary evidence proving their right to compensation. While there is an understanding of the need to prove eligibility, some have felt the process echoes the original scandal, when they struggled to persuade Home Office staff that they were living in the UK legally, and were asked for large quantities of difficult-to-find documentary proof, showing they had arrived as children in the 1950s and 1960s.

Support groups helping claimants to fill in the application forms say many people have yet to submit their claims, because they are still gathering evidence to prove eligibility. Since the government first apologised for its mistakes two years ago, more than 12,000 people have received documentation from the Home Office confirming they are living in the UK legally a figure that offers an indication of the number of people who may eventually claim compensation.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, said: By listening to feedback from community leaders and those affected, we have begun to put right the wrongs caused to a generation who have contributed so much to our country.

The Windrush compensation scheme has been developed to ease the burden from the unacceptable mistreatment some have faced, which is why it is so important that people continue to come forward.

The Home Office said a further 280,000 of compensation had been offered to claimants, but not yet paid out, possibly because applicants felt the offer did not reflect the extent of the difficulties experienced.

Twenty-three people have been told they are not eligible for any payment and 27 have asked for the payments offered to be reviewed by the Home Office. While the scheme is making good progress and continues to process claims as quickly as possible, the Home Office is committed to getting more people to come forward and claim, a spokesperson said. Many of the payments made are interim, which means people will get a far greater award.

Elwaldo Romeo received a letter in 2018 from the Home Office telling himhe was liable to be detained because he had not been given leave to enter the United Kingdom and offering support on returning home, despite the fact he had moved to the UK from Antigua 59 years earlier, aged four. He coordinates the group Windrush Action, made up of people who were affected by the scandal. He said he was very disappointed by the slow progress of compensation payments, but urged people who have been affected to come forward and make claims.

Judy Griffith was told by a jobcentre employee that she was an illegal immigrant, 52 years after moving to the UK from Barbados. She could not travel, so was unable to see her mother before she died. As a result of being unable to work she got into significant arrears on her flat. She is waiting for compensation so she can pay back the arrears and repay friends and relatives who helped her when she was classified as an illegal immigrant. She applied for compensation more than six months ago and is still waiting.

I understand that they have to verify everything but I am still in arrears, still trying to keep my head above water, still getting calls from the council about the arrears. Were still suffering and they dont seem to understand how badly it has affected our lives, she said.

Link:
Windrush scandal: only 60 victims given compensation so far - The Guardian