Theresa May says so-called Windrush immigrants from Caribbean will stay in Britain

Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday the so-called Windrush generation, people who came to Britain as children after the Second World War, are British and her government would not tell them to leave the country. 

Repeating an apology she made on Tuesday to 12 Caribbean nations, May told Parliament the government was doing all it could to help those people who had been wrongly labelled illegal immigrants.

May apologized for immigration officials' recent harsh treatment of people from those countries.

"These people are British, they are part of us," May said. "I want to say sorry to anyone who has had confusion or anxiety felt as a result of this."

Windrush generation individuals were invited to Britain to plug labour shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, but some of their descendants have been caught up in a tightening of immigration rules overseen by May in 2012 when she was interior minister.

Some people have been wrongly labelled illegal immigrants, asked to provide documentary evidence of their life in Britain they had never previously been required to keep, and in some cases denied rights, detained and threatened with deportation.

"I want to apologize to you today because we are genuinely sorry for any anxiety that has been caused," May told leaders and diplomats from the Caribbean countries, who were in London for a summit of Commonwealth heads of government. 

Britain is looking to strengthen ties to fellow Commonwealth countries as it prepares to leave the European Union.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness highlighted the issue at a plenary session of the summit on Tuesday, drawing cheers from his fellow leaders as he said the Windrush generation had enriched Britain and contributed to society.

"Now these persons are not able to claim their place as citizens," he said.

Named after a ship that brought migrants from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean islands in 1948, the Windrush generation enjoyed a special status, but that has been eroded over the years by successive immigration reforms.

Confusion over possible deportations

Interior Minister Amber Rudd said Monday that a team would be set up in her ministry to resolve issues. May told the Caribbean representatives on Tuesday that she would instruct that team to work swiftly and efficiently.

There was confusion over whether any Windrush descendants had already been deported after ministers gave conflicting details on Monday.

"We have no information. We do not know of any cases where somebody has been deported who is in this category," Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said on Tuesday.

David Lammy, a member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party who has argued passionately for justice for the Windrush migrants, tweeted he had just received a call from an elderly mother whose son was due to be deported on Wednesday.

"This is a national disgrace," he said. "What is going [on]makes me ashamed of our great country. The PM must act urgently to halt this deportation and all other Windrush deportations. Heads must roll over this."

Although the government has described the problems facing Windrush individuals as the result of bureaucratic bungling, critics such as Lammy have said the situation is a result of the Conservative government's hostility towards immigrants.

May's six-year tenure at the Interior Ministry was marked by a determination to reduce immigration numbers, a goal she has continued to emphasize as prime minister and in Brexit negotiations.

In 2013, her ministry sent vans around multicultural neighbourhoods instructing illegal immigrants to "Go Home or Face Arrest".