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Theresa May reveals Caribbean-born Brits will get Government payouts to make up for ‘anxiety’ of deportation threats
CARIBBEAN-BORN Brits who are wrongly told to leave the UK will get a payoff for their ordeal, Theresa May announced tonight.
The PM paid tribute to the Windrush generation - saying: "These people are British, they are part of us."
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And she vowed that the Government will pay them back for any costs they incur because of Home Office blunders.
The payments will go beyond the reimbursements for legal fees and expenses already announced.
Scores of Brits who moved here from the Caribbean decades ago have been told they must prove they have a right to live in the UK.
Some have run up huge bills for NHS treatment and been denied benefits they should have received.
Speaking at the end of the Commonwealth leaders' summit tonight, Mrs May confirmed that all their costs would be reimbursed.
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The PM said: "On Tuesday I met with Caribbean leaders where I gave an absolute commitment that the UK Government will do whatever it takes - including, where appropriate, payment of compensation - to resolve the anxieties and problems which some of the Windrush generation have suffered.
"These people are British, they are part of us, they helped to build Britain and we are all the stronger for their contributions."
Earlier this week, campaigners called on Mrs May to ensure that none of the Windrush generation will be left out of pocket by the Home Office's actions.
Jamaican PM Andrew Holness said: "If there was an acceptance that a wrong was done, then there should be a process of restoration."
And Labour MP David Lammy added: "This compensation must be applied retrospectively to all of those Windrush children who have spent money on legal fees and legal advice, documentation fees, lost their jobs and been denied access to benefits and public services, including our National Health Service."
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The news was also welcomed by Grenadian PM Keith Mitchell who said payouts need to be substantial.
He added: “It is extremely important. It cannot be just ‘I am sorry’. There are people who have lost a lot, people who have suffered a lot of pain.
“They must be given an opportunity to correct this by some serious compensation if not to the persons who have gone, the families who have suffered too.”
Downing Street sources said the Home Office would give details of the compensation scheme next week.
Amber Rudd has already set up a dedicated hotline to help those affected by the crisis get the documents they need to stay in Britain.
Nearly 300 people are currently being dealt with by the new team, with eight having had their cases resolved.
The Home Secretary said that all members of the Windrush generation should be able to get their papers within two weeks of applying.
One Brit, 63-year-old Albert Thompson, was told he must pay out £54,000 for cancer treatment on the NHS because he couldn't prove he is a citizen.
Another, grandmother Paulette Wilson, was forced to spent two weeks in a detention centre waiting to be deported to Jamaica before being saved in a last-minute reprieve.
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Details have also emerged of two Windrush women denied re-entry to the UK.
Gretel Gocan, 81, says she has been stuck in Jamaica since 2010 after a holiday due to a passport mix-up.
And ex-NHS nurse Icilda Williams, who lived in Bradford for 34 years, has been denied a visa to visit her kids since 2014 after moving back to Jamaica in 1996.
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