Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab):...So the
children of people who came here before 1973 have to be considered,
and as my hon. Friends have said, the scandal also includes those
who came from many other Commonwealth countries,
including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and countries in west
Africa. It is not just about the Caribbean; these cases arise now
only because many of those people came here—were invited
here—earlier than the others... Mike Gapes (Ilford...Request free trial
Ms (Hackney North and Stoke
Newington) (Lab):...So the children of people who came
here before 1973 have to be considered, and as my hon. Friends have
said, the scandal also includes those who came from many other
Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
countries in west Africa. It is not just about the Caribbean; these
cases arise now only because many of those people came here—were
invited here—earlier than the others...
(Ilford South)
(Lab/Co-op): Has the hon. and learned Lady (Joanna Cherry
(Edinburgh South West) (SNP)) seen the Financial Times today?
There is an article about the test of English for international
communication, which reveals that 35,000 people have had their
status as students in this country revoked. In 20% of those cases,
that was based on a system of voice recognition that has proved to
be faulty. An estimated 7,000 Bangladeshi, Indian and other
students, including my constituents, have been removed from this
country, or are at the threat of removal at this moment, because of
a policy introduced in 2014 by the then Home Secretary—now the
Prime Minister.
(Leyton and Wanstead)
(Lab):...This country has close ties with the Caribbean
and with other Commonwealth countries, and we should bear in mind
that this debate will be watched across the Commonwealth. Thousands
of people will be watching us in countries such as Jamaica, India
and Pakistan. Those close ties with the Commonwealth, and with the
Caribbean in particular, have their roots in an appalling
institution: the empire. It was built on piracy and slavery, but
nevertheless the one good thing to come out of that poisonous
institution was the Commonwealth, which has always given relatively
small countries, often with little political and economic clout, a
platform for their voices to be heard, particularly here and
particularly at the Commonwealth Heads of Government
meetings...
(Bristol South)
(Lab):...The debate about migration and proof of
identity is not new, but what I hope is new is the voice and
experience of many of us here today in this place. I grew up the
daughter of Irish migrants who in the 1950s—aged just 17 and
21—came to a really exciting but alien and sometimes hostile
environment. My contemporaries in west London, as well as the
Irish, largely came from the Indian subcontinent but also from the
Caribbean. We knew we were different, with our parents born of a
different time and place—we were like the in-betweeners—but we
shared our knowledge of our history, food, customs and religion. I
learned about Amritsar, Indian partition, slavery, the
Commonwealth, the world’s religions and customs, and the joy of
those cultures not from history books, but from my peers...
(Tonbridge and Malling)
(Con):...Many Members have spoken, so I will not
take up much more time. I simply want to say that that unfairness
applies not only, as many have said, to the Windrush generation in
the purest sense, but to a wider community who have come
from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
the African nations, the middle east and all over the world. One
community I would particularly like to highlight, because it is one
that touches me personally, is the Jewish community, who have come
over the years and have also suffered unfairness through
immigration at various points. I realise that that is in many ways
tangential to today’s debate, but the point about fairness in
migration is that it must include everyone or it includes no
one...
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