Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has encouraged the Catholic community to unite in prayer and reflection on Windrush Day. He heralds the importance and value of the Windrush Generation as well as that of the UK’s migrant and ethnic minority communities:
“The story of the Windrush Generation is one of people coming to the UK, settling and building their lives here and making an enormous contribution to society; yet all too often these same people were failed by the state, as the scandal of the detention and deportation of innocent people made tragically clear. Many of those harmed still await redress from government.”
Learning lessons from history, says Bishop McAleenan, is an essential part of the process to bring about racial justice:
“Racial justice depends upon many things, including learning from our history. This Windrush Day we should unite in prayer and reflection, with a shared commitment to properly recognize the profound importance and value of the UK’s migrant and ethnic minority communities, never allowing their human dignity to be violated.”
The third annual Windrush Day falls on June 22 and commemorates the Windrush Generation and their legacy. The date marks the anniversary of the day hundreds of passengers from the West Indies disembarked from the passenger ship Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in 1948.
