• THANKS to the New Journal for highlighting the distressing case of Michael Braithwaite, (Two-year immigration ordeal is finally over, April 12).

Unfortunately Mr Braithwaite is only one of potentially tens of thousands of British people of African-Caribbean origin who belong to the so-called Windrush generation and may have fallen foul of the government’s “really hostile environment” for migrants, the shameless creation of the then home secretary Theresa May.

The Immigration Acts of 2014 and 2016, which effectively turn landlords, employers, and even medical professionals into extensions of the UK Border Agency, mark the realisation of May’s rhetoric.

Camden Council officials would doubtless say that the legislation left them with no choice but to review Mr Braithwaite’s “right to work” in Britain, but surely it could have offered him meaningful assistance in dealing with the home office and supported him in mounting a legal challenge.

As a minimum the council should issue an apology and compensate Mr Braithwaite for the loss of his post at Gospel Oak school through no fault of his own.

There are several cruel ironies to the situation facing all too many from the Windrush generation, not least the fact that one Enoch Powell, as a health minister in the 1950s, actively encouraged Caribbean women to migrate to fill nursing places in the fledgling NHS.

The Windrush generation and its children have made an enormous contribution to the rebuilding of a war-scarred Britain, the provision of its public services and indeed this country’s labour movement.

In the wake of the frankly racist treatment many have recently endured with the loss of jobs, denial of access of vital services, and now the threat of deportation, they deserve something far better than a half-hearted apology and the promise of a “taskforce” from May’s successor at the home office, Amber Rudd.

GEORGE BINETTE
Former Branch Secretary, Camden UNISON,
On behalf of the UNISON Retired Members’ Committee