The Windrush scandal

Seventy-five years ago this week, the HMT Empire Windrush docked in the UK, bringing 800 migrants from Caribbean nations to their new lives in Britain. But the anniversary is a bittersweet one the British Caribbean community thanks to the lingering aftermath of the Windrush scandal, which saw thousands of legal residents mistakenly treated as illegal immigrants under the Home Office’s hostile environment policy. At the time many churches and Christians were among those demanding justice for the Windrush generation, but half a decade later have we taken our eye off the ball? Has the government fixed its mistakes and provided genuine restitution and resolution? And has the scandal prompted British churches to address their own failures to welcome their Caribbean brothers and sisters when they arrived in the 1940s, 50s and 60s? Guests this week: - Guy Hewitt, racial justice director for the Church of England - Alton Bell, Pentecostal pastor and head of the Movement for Justice and Reconciliation - Joe Aldred, Pentecostal bishop and formerly Churches Together in England - Israel Olofinjana, Baptist pastor, theologian and director of the Evangelical Alliance’s One People Commission