Journalists played a key role not only in making the facts of the Windrush scandal public but also in pressuring the UK government to address the controversy. Legal specialists too have defended Windrush Survivors and pressed for more systematic redress for them.
Here you can listen to an oral history interview with The Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman who was widely attributed with breaking the story of the scandal in November 2017 in an investigative piece that featured the Paulette Wilson. Paulette, who became a prominent campaigner against the scandal, was detained at Yarl’s Wood detention centre and almost forced on to a plane to Jamaica. She passed away on 23 July 2020 at the age of 64.
Amelia Gentleman
Amelia Gentleman is an award-winning Guardian journalist and author of 'The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment'. She is largely attributed with having broke the scandal after publishing a series of stories in The Guardian newspaper about people...
Declan Owens
Declan Owens was a solicitor at Thompsons Solicitors who specialized in labour law and human rights. He is a co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and European Lawyers for Workers Network. Transcript [coming...
Fiona Bawdon
Fiona is a legal affairs journalist, researcher and campaigner against social injustice on issues covering legal aid, immigration, women, youth and crime. She is the communication consultant to We Belong: Young Migrants Standing Up, the co-founder and director of...
Grace Brown
Grace Brown is a public law practitioner with a particular focus on human rights, immigration and refugee law. She commenced practice in 1995 and was awarded the 2021 BSN Lawyer of the Year, in the Chambers category, at the UK Diversity Legal Awards. She is joint...
Jacqueline McKenzie
Jacqueline McKenzie is a human rights lawyer, a partner and head of the immigration and asylum law at Leigh Day. She played a central role as founder of McKenzie, Beute and Pope in leading the Windrush Surgeries, which have been held at various locations across...
Jennifer Housen
Jennifer Housen is barrister-at-law, England and Wales and attorney-at-law New York and Jamaica. For years, she warned about the problems that persons of Caribbean heritage were facing in the United Kingdom and toured the UK to advise persons with the right of...
Martin Forde KC
Martin Forde KC was born in the UK to parents of St Lucian and Barbadian heritage. He has a practice in 1 Crown Office Row (1 COR) which covers all aspects of Health Law. He was invited by Sajid Javid MP to oversee the design of the Windrush Compensation Scheme...
Nick Nason
Nick Nason has worked as an immigration lawyer for over ten years. In 2017 he founded his own practice, Edgewater Legal and is their Principal Lawyer. He was previously a solicitor and in-house advocate at Luqmani Thompson (2010-2015) and worked with the...
Rachel Okello
Rachel Okello was born in Cardiff to parents of Grenadian heritage. She is a solicitor of over 20 years and specialises in UK immigration, nationality and deportation law. She is currently based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and works at Rogols...
Sir Mark Trevor Phillips, OBE
Sir Mark Trevor Phillips OBE is a journalist and business leader. He was author of A Contemptuous Betrayal of the British Tradition of Fair for the Daily Mail This piece has been described by Professor Patrick Vernon as critically important in that it gained the...
