Hundreds of long-term sick and mentally ill people from the Windrush generation were repatriated to the Caribbean from UK hospitals, sometimes without giving informed consent, according to a BBC investigation.
Analysis of formerly classified National Archives documents found that about 400 people were sent back to their countries of birth between the 1950s and the 1970s under a scheme that was supposed to be voluntary but that may not have involved a proper consent process.
The children of those who were repatriated say their families were ripped apart and some were never reunited with their relatives. They have called for an inquiry in response to the BBC’s revelations.
The investigation’s findings echo the injustices of the Windrush scandal in which thousands of people were misclassified as being in the UK illegally, some of whom were wrongly deported.
Most of those affected were repatriated by the National Assistance Board, the forerunner to the Department for Work and Pensions, which was then responsible for the UK’s welfare system. The board agreed with the Colonial Office in 1949 to pay for the repatriation of “coloured British colonials who through ill health, or inability to adapt themselves to conditions in this country, were unable to support themselves”.
Under the scheme, the patient should “have expressed a wish to return”. It also should only have been carried out if it would “benefit” them and if there were “suitable arrangements … in their country of origin”.
But the BBC uncovered documents suggesting the decision to repatriate was sometimes motivated by a desire to reduce pressure on hospital beds. A letter from the office of the high commissioner of Jamaica in 1963 to the Commonwealth Relations Office says it received “a number of requests from hospital authorities for the repatriation of chronically ill patients largely on the grounds of pressure on beds or other hospital services”.
The letter noted that the requests gave the impression that the “institutions concerned regard mental disorder and in some cases chronic illness as grounds for repatriation of Commonwealth citizens regardless of whether adequate treatment and care are available”.
A UK government spokesperson said the law had changed since the time of these cases. “Now an independent tribunal has to agree that any repatriation would be in the best interests of the patient. We recognise the campaigning of families seeking to address the historic injustice faced by their loved ones, and remain absolutely committed to righting the wrongs faced by those in the Windrush generation.”
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Joseph Armatrading was one of those sent back. He arrived in the UK from the British colony of St Kitts, travelling on a British passport, in 1954 and lived in Nottingham with his wife and five daughters. He was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis in the 1960s, and in 1966 he was returned to St Kitts. He never saw his family again.
His daughter June, now 65, told the BBC: “It’s really upsetting … This was a vulnerable man. You’re supposed to look after your vulnerable people, and they didn’t.”
The BBC investigation uncovered a letter written by a government official admitting that the procedure of repatriating Armatrading had “not been correct”.
