Windrush grandmother Paulette Wilson welcomes city project

These were the proud words of Windrush grandmother Paulette Wilson after a project was launched today to help people, like her, who have been incorrectly identified as illegal immigrants.

Emotions ran high at the official launch of The Paulette Wilson Windrush Citizenship Project this afternoon, which the 61-year-old and her daughter Natalie Barnes attended as special guests.

Co-run by Wolverhampton council and the city's Refugee and Migrant Centre, the project is one of the first of its kind in the UK and hopes to lead the way for the rest of the country.

A beaming Paulette, who was overcome during the speeches and had to dab her eyes with a tissue, said: "It's a great thing to know that people in Wolverhampton have someone and somewhere they can go and talk to.

“I believe that there are many people out there who feel vulnerable to the threat of deportation, loss of employment and who are not able to access healthcare due to not having proof of their rightful citizenship. They don’t need to suffer in silence as advice and practical support will be offered to those who need help.”

Jamaica-born Mrs Wilson, aged 61, was threatened with deportation and locked up in an immigration centre for a week last October despite having lived in the UK for 50 years. Finally, in January, she was told she could stay in England.

The scheme in her name will provide specialist advice and support to help residents gain their citizenship, and prevent anything like this from happening again.

Leader of the council Roger Lawrence attended the launch and said he thought it was 'scandalous' the way the Windrush generation had been treated.

He said: "I am delighted that we are in a position to be one of the councils to help people caught up in this dreadful scandal. We have seen up and down the country people who have gone in debt, lost their house, lost their jobs as a result.

"I think it's scandalous the way people have been treated."

Mrs Wilson's daughter Natalie Barnes said despite it happening more than half a year ago, the ordeal still greatly upset her mother.

She said she hoped the new project was going to 'help a lot of people out'.

Natalie added: "We didn't tell a lot of people about our story, we kept it to ourselves because my mum is kind of embarrassed. She didn't even know she was in that situation. It wasn't until the last seven or eight months that it got a bit bad, when they said to me that the evidence they had wasn't enough.

"I said I'm getting everything you're asking me for, yet you're still kicking me and telling me that's not right.

"I think this project will support a lot of the elderly. They cant get out, they cant make phone calls, so us going into people's properties and talking to them about the situation and having someone like my mum who's actually been through it, it might put them at ease."

A large number of people who came from the Commonwealth to the UK after the Nationality Act 1948 and before the 1971 Immigration Act were given the right of indefinite leave to remain, including around 3,000 people who are living in Wolverhampton.

However, a series of cases have come to national attention involving people, particularly from Caribbean communities, who have been long-term residents of the UK but do not have documents to prove their status. As a result, they have been incorrectly identified as illegal immigrants by the Home Office and put at risk of deportation.

Wolverhampton’s Windrush Citizenship Project team will provide support to people who arrived in the UK from the Commonwealth between 1948 and 1971 and who may have either lost their documentation, or who were not provided with the correct paperwork in the first place.

A team of skilled immigration caseworkers from the Refugee and Migrant Centre will be on hand to support the process to apply for British citizenship.