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THE RULING of the UK High Court in the case of Trinidad-born UK citizen Lynda Mahabir provides a ray of light in the otherwise dismal Windrush saga.
Ms Mahabir’s horrifying ordeal also underlines just how interconnected our world is.
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere, but this case literally brings home the fact that the political and administrative failings of other countries have a direct bearing on us.
That injustice has unfolded in the UK under the British government’s implementation of a “hostile environment” for immigrants is without question. But by any standards, Ms Mahabir’s torment has been extraordinary.
Between 1948 and 1971, in the wake of a devastating world war that had ravaged Europe, the UK allowed people from its colonies to land in Britain to aid with its reconstruction efforts. Many people from the Caribbean went to Britain on ships such as the MV Empire Windrush. These people were British citizens: this was before independence. No paperwork was issued.
In 2010, the UK Home Office destroyed landing cards belonging to Windrush migrants. At the same time, a policy of deporting Windrush people – as well as their descendants, many of whom were born in and knew no other country but the UK – ensued. The “hostile environment” policy took hold, and UK politics and culture wars have kept it in place since.
Ms Mahabir went to the UK as a child in 1969, but was brought back to Trinidad in 1977 by her father. The Home Office failed to document her lawful immigration status and, as a result, she was unable to return to the UK for 41 years – until she was granted leave to remain under the Windrush scheme in 2018.
But the Home Office did not recognise the right of her family to be there with her. It imposed fees in excess of £20,000 just for her to file an application for them to do so. The message was clear: stay out.
“There are things that are worth fighting for and this was one of them,” Ms Mahabir told UK media last week.
She had endured three years of separation from her family. Deputy High Court Judge Tim Smith ruled the UK state had facilitated “a colossal interference” with Ms Mahabir’s right to family life.
The ruling, if allowed to stand, could become a precedent for other cases where people with a right to stay in the UK have been separated from their families owing to the imposition of bureaucratic and economic hurdles.
Such a ray of light comes amid ominous signs that the “hostile environment” remains alive and well.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday announced his intention to consider removing the jurisdiction of the UK High Court to review deportation cases.
But for the moment, the rule of law – once a principle cherished and closely guarded by a country like the UK – has prevailed.
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