Radio 4's PM said one only got out when their MP intervened. Others have lost jobs, or healthcare. This is far worse than being caught up in endless bureaucracy. I think compensation is needed for these kind of cases (and immediate treatment for anyone that's being held for).
And there's this:
Home Office destroyed Windrush landing cards, says ex-staffer
The Home Office destroyed thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants’ arrival dates in the UK, despite staff warnings that the move would make it harder to check the records of older Caribbean-born residents experiencing residency difficulties.
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The former employee (who has asked for his name not to be printed) said it was decided in 2010 to destroy the disembarkation cards, which dated back to the 1950s and 60s, when the Home Office’s Whitgift Centre in Croydon was closed and the staff were moved to another site. Employees in his department told their managers it was a bad idea, because these papers were often the last remaining record of a person’s arrival date, in the event of uncertainty or lost documents. The files were destroyed in October that year, when Theresa May was home secretary.
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The Home Office added that in deciding immigration cases, it considers alternative documents, such as tax records and utility bills, as evidence of ongoing residency. “The disposal of registration slips would therefore have no bearing on immigration cases whereby Commonwealth citizens are proving residency in the UK.”
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Home Office staff members have been reluctant to consider alternative records, such as National Insurance contributions, unless they are presented within a dossier of papers proving residency every year for decades. People who have been classified as being in the UK illegally are often unable to put together the evidence, and cannot afford legal assistance.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/17/home-office-destroyed-windrush-landing-cards-says-ex-stafferPeople are told that you don't need to keep tax records for over 7 years. And why the hell would you keep utility bills longer than that? They can't be used as proof of address if they're over a year old.
Part of the problem has been a requirement to provide four pieces of evidence for each year that a person has been in the country.
Windrush migrants must prove they have been in the UK since 1 January 1973, when they were granted the right to stay in the country permanently.
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It has not been using central tax and pension records that would prove someone has been working to support their application. Instead, the current system relies on people having kept their own documentation including payslips and bank statements dating back to the 1970s.
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"One of my clients who had lost the passport she used to enter the UK as a child with indefinite leave was refused confirmation that she had retained that status in spite of her having supplied the Home Office with a copy of the passport," he added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-437950774 items from 45 years ago? How many of us could do that? I'm presuming family photos wouldn't count. They really do seem to have designed the system to screw the people who have been here legally for decades.
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