Britain honors Caribbean migrants who helped build the country

Queen Elizabeth II and her grandson Prince William on Wednesday paid tribute to Caribbean migrants for their “profound contribution” to Britain, while a monument was unveiled in London thanking migrants for the work they did to rebuild the world. country after World War II.

William and his wife Kate unveiled the statue — featuring figures of a man, woman and child standing on suitcases — at London’s Waterloo train station. In his speech, Guillermo highlighted the racism that many of the migrants faced in Britain, stating that it still affects their descendants to this day.

“Discrimination remains an all too common experience for black men and women in Britain in 2022,” the prince said.

William referred to a scandal that “constituted a profound injustice” against thousands of immigrants who came to Britain between 1948 and 1973 after the government asked the colonies to send workers due to post-war labor shortages. The immigrants became known as “the Windrush generation” after the name of the ship that brought the first group in 1948, the Empire Windrush.

In 2018 it was revealed that thousands of Caribbean migrants who had lived and worked legally in Britain for decades were affected by new rules aimed at combating illegal immigration.

A large number of people lost their jobs, homes and access to health care because they did not have the documents that prove their status. Some were rounded up and deported to countries they barely remembered.

The British government apologized and offered compensation, but many complain that the process to obtain compensation is too complicated and that the payments are not enough to compensate for the damage suffered.

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“As we celebrate the diversity of our families, our communities and society as a whole — something the Windrush generation contributed so much to — it is also important to acknowledge the ways in which the future they sought and deserved has not come. yet,” William said.

The queen, for her part, issued a written statement saying the statue “is a fitting thanks to the pioneers of the Windrush and their descendants, in recognition of the profound contribution they have made to the United Kingdom over the decades.”

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