Free legal surgeries to give advice on Windrush scandal compensation scheme
Families affected by the Windrush scandal are being invited to a public meeting to hear the latest on the compensation scheme.
Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is hosting an event at 2pm this Saturday at Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton with an opportunity to put questions to a panel including specialist immigration lawyers, an adviser to the Home Office, political activist Patrick Vernon, MP Helen Hayes, and Lambeth councillor Sonia Winifred.
BCA, which is the largest UK specialist repository of Black British history and culture, has also partnered with immigration lawyers to offer free legal surgeries to give practical support in dealing with compensation applications.
Arike Oke, managing director of BCA, said: “We support The Windrush Compensation Scheme but it is difficult to access. It is causing additional trauma to those already made to suffer by asking them to navigate further unduly onerous and unnecessary amounts of evidence to be granted the compensation they are due.”
The surgeries will be held every Wednesday evening fro 5pm until 8pm and Saturday mornings from 10am until noon from Wednesday until the end of February.
Ms Oke added: “The landing cards that would have led to citizenship being confirmed should have been in our archives. For our history and our presence in the UK to be held in such scant regard is shocking. We are here to correct those errors in judgment, to correct the emissions and erasures from mainstream history and to reassert that we were here before, we are now and we’ll be here in the future.
“We stand with the people affected by the Windrush scandal in making sure this never happens again, and will be helping them to claim the compensation they are absolutely entitled to as British citizens.”
Free tickets for the public meeting can be booked through the BCA’s website here.
Free legal surgery slots can also be booked online, or by calling the BCA on 0203 757 8500.
BCA received funding from the Windrush Justice Fund and The Funding Network (TFN) in order to make these events available to those who need it.
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