The Windrush commissioner has revealed that legal support will be the focus of his next phase of work - telling victims of the immigration scandal that he is in a ‘hurry for justice’.
The Reverend Clive Foster MBE was appointed last June on a three-year term to independently oversee the government’s work to address what is now called the ‘Home Office Windrush scandal’.
On Saturday, he attended a Windrush Justice Scandal Symposium, at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, north London. There, he told a roomful of survivors, family members of victims, campaigners and lawyers that the next stage of his focus would be around legal support. ‘I’ve met with the minister and told them that’s where I’m going. I’ve told the Home Office that’s where I’m going… Continue to share with me any kind of legal hurdles or why it’s important people need legal support. Evidence is already out there. But at the end of the day, someone has got to sit in front of someone and make that case still.’
Foster said his office is preparing documents that can be presented to the minister ‘that can talk about what the legally funded assistance that’s required’, highlighting the importance of making informed recommendations to inform the government’s decision.
Earlier in the day, Foster told the Gazette that he was increasingly hearing about other compensation schemes that have funded legal support ‘and disquiet that the Windrush scheme does not provide for that and that the Windrush scheme came before some of these subsequent scandals’.
Research published by legal thinktank Justice, the University of Sussex and law firm Dechert revealed the significant difference that legal representation has made, with one victim whose application for compensation was rejected by the Home Office eventually awarded £295,000 with the help of a pro bono lawyer.
The Windrush Justice Inquiry Report sets out a blueprint for a ‘People’s Inquiry’ dedicated to investigating the ‘ongoing failings’ of the Windrush compensation scheme, restore justice for those directly affected by the scandal, rebuild trust in the system and, through its findings, urge the government to order a statutory inquiry.
Saturday's event is the second symposium that has been held since the report was unveiled in parliament last year.
Foster told Saturday's symposium that he supported a people's inquiry 'because it's created by the people who have suffered the most harm [and] shaped by those personal experiences'.
While Foster is not opposed to a statutory inquiry, acknowledging that it can lead to a sense of accountability, he said they can take a long time. 'I've got less than three years. I'm in a hurry for justice for those people who have not got their status now, who have not got their compensation now, who need better support from a legal and advocacy point of view now'.
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