INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ago and are now being denied basic rights after being incorrectly identified as illegal immigrants.More than 140 members of parliament have
signed a letter to the prime minister calling on her to resolve an anomaly that means many people who arrived in Britain as children between
1948 and 1971 are being denied health services, prevented from working and in some cases threatened with deportation.There is growing anger
that long-term British residents have fallen victim to rule changes in 2012 aimed at stopping overstaying
This meant that their legal status changed despite living, working and paying tax in Britain for decades.Many have been told they need
evidence including passports to continue working or getting health treatment
But many arrived on their parents' documentation and never formally applied for British citizenship or a passport."That these individuals
are being treated with such contempt, disrespect and lack of dignity is a national disgrace," said David Lammy, an opposition Labour member
of parliament and the author of the letter to the prime minister.The immigrants are named after the Windrush, one of the first ships that
brought Caribbean migrants to Britain in 1948 in the aftermath of World War Two, when labour shortages meant that people from the
Commonwealth, a network of mostly former British colonies, were invited to help rebuild the economy.Almost half a million people left their
homes in the West Indies to live in Britain between 1948 and 1970, according to Britain's National Archives.British media have reported
cases such as a man who was denied treatment for cancer and a special needs teaching assistant who lost his job after being accused of being
illegal immigrants despite living in Britain for more than 40 years.The British government last week refused a request from the high
commissioners of 12 Caribbean nations for a dedicated meeting on this subject at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London this
week.May will hold talks on the issue with counterparts from Caribbean nations this week and she only became aware of a request for a
meeting on Monday morning, her spokesman said."She is aware that many people are unlikely to have documents that are over 40 years old and
she is clear that no one with the right to be here will be made to leave," the spokesman said.A Home Office official said the rejection was
because the subject of the meeting was not clear.An online petition calling for an amnesty for those who arrived in Britain from
Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean as children and a lowering of the level of documentary proof required from people who have lived
not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
