The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment by Amelia Gentleman

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment Reviews

• 
  Dannii Elle

  This reads like a dystopian tale, featuring a government who followed corrupt policies and adhered to strict targets that knowingly ruined countless lives by dehumanising them to a number on a screen and ejected them from their country, their homes, and their families. And yet, it happened in our own very recent history.
  
  This was formatted in an easily accessible way, that relied on individual stories before introducing any sort of political focus. This served the dual purpose of ensuring the reader acknowledged these individuals as human, when their government only saw a target to be met, and made this bureaucratic idiocy immediately known, when those in power failed to do so.
• 
  Graham

  This is my book of the year 2019. It is a shocking true story. It is a frightening story. Most of us have experienced the frustration of being on the wrong end of a bureaucratic barrier from time to time. For most of us it is no more than an inconvenience such as waiting in a telephone queue only to be met with a response that is limited to answers from a script but what if the barrier is more serious? What if it is a conversation with a home office official behind a perspex screen who tells you he/she can do nothing except schedule another appointment to meet another official who, in turn tells you the same thing and that in the mean time you may be repatriated against your will to a country you left 50 years ago when still a child?
  What if the Home Office deliberately pursues policies to make you unemployable (by scaring your employer into sacking you)? What if Home Office policy aims to make your life impossible in the hope that you will decide to get out of the country? What if the Home Office demands documentary proof that you have lived in the UK since you arrived from a Commonwealth Country as a child in the 1960s-- proof on such a scale that each year must be vouched for by three independent documents? All in the name of a 'hostile environment'.
  
  This book records shameful stories of bureaucratic bullying and indifference and reminds us that tyranny comes in different forms. It does not necessarily resort to guns, Nuremburg type rallies or physical violence. It can be more insidious: hidden from public view and supported by deliberate menace (such as threatening text messages and threats of detention and removal from the country without any judicial control or meaningful right of challenge). It can take the form of wrongful detention in deportation centres. It can take the form of retrospectively changing the rules so that a child arriving in the UK with the right to remain finds him/herself threatened with deportation 60 later because he/she cannot produce paperwork long since destroyed (some it destroyed by the Home Office itself). These are not fanciful -- they are the experiences of the people whose stories are told in this book.
  
  "Injustice" is the word that cries out from each chapter of this book. It is hardly coincidental that the injustice created by sloppy and inhumane policy was suffered by the most vulnerable. It is very difficult to avoid the conclusion that racism played a part in this. Legal redress was theoretically available through the courts but a fat lot of good that is if access to legal advice and the Courts is made impossible by the very perpetrator of the injustice (namely the Home Office and the government's removal of legal aid).
  
  The tyranny of the bureacracy has not ended with the government's admission of culpability in the Windrush affair. "I Daniel Blake" is another example of the tyranny of the bureaucracy. The failure to deal fairly and transparently with those seeking asylum is yet another ongoing example (See "Refugee Tales III"
  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TWJMB5...).
  
  Hats off to Amelia Gentleman, the journalist who broke the story and who wrote this book. She makes a number of personal disclosures in the book which I don't reveal here for fear of spoiling the book but one can only say it must have taken special personal courage for her to stick to her task.
  
  I hope this book achieves a wide readership. It deserves to. It is well written and hard to put down. It is a warning that all is not well...
  
• 
  MJ Nicholls

  There are more important things to consider than the relative merits of Guided by Voices’ lo-fi albums in contrast with their slicker noughties efforts (Bee Thousand or Isolation Drills, my salty friends?), or whether to construct the app version of my Welsh picaresque novel using React.js or Node with Express. The modern phenom of not particularly focusing on social ills, unless that ill is currently chewing off your own face (hello, Coronavirus!) is one punitively understood by governments, especially the hellacious one helmed by that fart in a frock, Theresa “Fucking” May, who presided over a sinister immigration policy intended to fast-track brown people back to their ancestors’ countries of origins. There are no words to express how repugnant the United Kingdom has become over the last few years, other than a stream of sadistic splatterporn terms shrieked castrato into a megaphone, and the Windrush story is one in a series of pathetic, amoral policies cooked up in response to the Murdoch media, whose hobbies include phone hacking and utterly corrupting the entire planet all the time with their lying mouths. It truly is a repulsive time to be alive, my salty friends, so better to bury your ears in the sublime discography of Guided by Voices, who have four new albums and counting for you to feast on.
• 
  Asim Qureshi

  Something was sitting uncomfortably in relation to really call out politicians for their role in Windrush in explicit terms of racism. I had no idea Amelia Gentleman is Jo Johnson’s wife, and then of course it all made sense. Guardian liberal cover for racism.
  
  I was deeply discomforted by her centring of herself to the story of Windrush without any acknowledgment of all the grassroots charities and community organisers who had been assisting these families. This wasn’t the take I was looking for.
  
  If you do read it, best to read it as a history of what happened, because the politics of the book are lukewarm at the very best.
• 
  Milly Gribben

  I don't really know what to rate this. In terms of the detail of reporting and how it carefully it picks apart flaws in the government's immigration "policies", its 5 stars.
  
  But there's this whole really strange moment about 3/4 in when Gentleman quite casually reveals that SHE'S MARRIED TO BORIS JOHNSON'S BROTHER and just like..........how???? The mental gymnastics required to fall in love with, marry and have children with a high ranking Tory while also exposing the frankly evil culture of the party and their systemic, racist abuse of lawful citizens to the point where many are homeless, depressed and even suicidal.........I just can't.
  
  Liberal white feminism is utterly deranged.
• 
  Jeremy Olds

  :'(
  
  Best line:
  "Surprised to be questioned about why they had come to Britain, the Windrush arrivals tried to get locals to understand the fundamental truth that their presence was the direct consequence of the country’s colonial past: ‘We are here because you were there.’"
• 
  Amanda Wallace

  This was an interesting and horrifying insight into the hostile immigration environment created by Theresa May and David Cameron (though not them alone) and the devastating consequences it had on black/ethnic, legal British residents from the Windrush generation. My dad is from that time and luckily he has a passport and so wasn't affected like so many others were.
  
  This book talks about the roots of racism in Britain, it's systematic and much more widespread than people would think. Some of the stories included by people affected by the scandal are shocking, people who are perfectly British with a legal right to live in the UK being denied cancer treatment on the NHS, being fired from their jobs, kicked out of their homes and having their drivers licence/qualifications revoked. It caused many people to become homeless, mentally ill and suicidal.
  
  This is a brilliant book about a complicated issue and the dark roots of racism that are clearly still prevalent today. A must read.
• 
  bookmaggot

  • author writes for the guardian so my belief in how genuinely sympathetic she is to this case is weak (at one point she says that the immigration police ask if there's a history of transphobia in the poor person theyre trying to deport, and I'm thinking "if being transphobic justifies deportation, p sure most of this author's colleagues would be off Terf Island by now")
  • she's married to boris johnson's brother so my belief that she actually cares continues to plummet. Like idk...you can't spend a whole book criticising the Tories..and then... This lack of care is also supported by the text; she centres the investigation process a lot, how hard she was fighting to find a good article, the working conditions at the office, her struggles with clickbait journalism and how she prioritised Black pain and struggle to the point of frustration by some of her interviewees. I dont get the vibe that this was a justice-seeking exercise for her, more of a career move.
  • she keeps saying "nobody knew this was happening, nobody was talking about it" which is code for "white people didnt know, white people werent talking about it". I felt like the victims were just props for her and case studies, referenced when necessary but not the focus.
  • reading about Black history by a white person who writes for the guardian is a mistake, why did i do this.
• 
  Charles Liburd

  The beauty of the english language is its flexibility. When that language is dangerously and purposely abused, it becomes the spearhead for a very British form of fascism. As Amelia Gentleman winds her way through the corridors of power, that leads to black British citizens being dragged down the corridors of their homes and bundled on a plane to a place that is not their home - - we are horrified. We are also horrified to see how this flexible language comes to serve the ends of a cruel, painfully heartless master in search of low hanging fruit to meet its targets - - the Windrush generation. This is a powerful book, painstakingly researched and told with the voice of heartbreak.
  Amelia Gentleman shies away from calling the Windrush betrayal a conspiracy, but it is. It is a conspiracy that conspires within the flexibility of the language, where, in a very British way, the players whispers, nod, smile agreement - - sometimes in a way, as in the case of the Amber Rudd interview, that allows for no self reflection at all. Because it was never said. Not really.
• 
  Noah Jai

  I'm not rating this as I can't think clearly right now but yeah. I shouldn't be shocked that the white, upper-class writer of this book is literally married to Boris Johnsons brother, who, of course, is a Tory MP but here we are. Feel sick to my stomach and this just reminds me that white people's claims of anti-racism mean Nothing if they aren't willing to hold people they're close to to the same standards. Reccomend anyone thinking of reading this instead reads Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation by Colin Grant to hear the Windrush citizens actual voices, without a filter of whiteness, a hesitancy to criticize the Conservative party in its entirety (Gentleman tellingly focuses on individuals within the party rather than the nature of the party itself).
• 
  Jojosbookshelf

  Appalling and vital
• 
  Chloe Joseph

  A very important read - expose of the Windrush scandal where so many people were mistreated through no fault of their own
• 
  Jack Burrows

  Reading this during the time of the revitalised Black Lives Matter movement highlights the significant of Gentleman's heartbreaking discovery of Windrush descendants battling the state on their right and freedom to live in the UK.
  
  With endless stories from the children of Caribbean migrants from the 1950s and 1960s, this book brings to light the grim reality of the British Government's systemic, racist policies. The only thing worse than these Black British citizens being told they're illegal immigrants is the horrifying lack of empathy, care and support in rectify this wholly incorrect and immoral labelling process. It led to Black Britons "voluntarily" moving back to the Caribbean; being arrested & detained in immigration detention centres; being forcibly deported to a country they'd lived in as an infant or, in some cases, death as a result of stress-related conditions.
  
  This book exposes the ugly racism at the core of Government immigration policy. Gentleman's own increasing exasperation is overshadowed by the trauma, torment and toil of those who have their lives constantly threatened with arrest and deportation, as the Conservative Government's "Hostile Environment" policy attempts to create just that - an environment in which ALL migrants, illegal or not, are made to feel unwelcome.
  
  It makes for an eye-opening read on modern racism in the UK and, after the horror-show of the Windrush Scandal, you're led to realise how far we still have to go in revolutionising our understanding of racism in the United Kingdom.
• 
  Tara Jones

  Might well be my top non fiction read of 2022. Just brilliant
• 
  Imogen

  An absolutely heartbreaking account of the impact of the Windrush scandal on individual British citizens. This book demonstrates the absolute power of journalism and the desperate need we have for the work of investigative journalists.
• 
  Saskia Nowicka

  This is an engaging fast read that exposes staggering incompetence and casual cruelty from the UK government. I knew the vague outline of the Windrush scandal before reading this but really didn't understand how badly and systematically the UK has failed and abused many of its citizens. The author does well to situate recent events in the colonial and racist history of the UK which is necessary. Definitely a recommended read, especially for anyone living in the UK.
• 
  Benjamin Lettuce Treuhaft

  The Windrush scandal, exposed by Amelia Gentleman, which exploded into headlines in the Guardian a couple of years ago, was mostly just headlines to me. I don't usually read depressing stories of state cruelty to the brown folks who populate the immigration detention centres of the UK and the US. It's too awful. I usually skip to the next story. So I was glad to see she'd written a whole book, a way for me to get a belated handle on the scandal. This exposé is worthy of Jessica Mitford. Gentleman narrates the audio book herself and as she calmly and clearly develops her theme you can detect some icy outrage at the enormity of the harm caused by the catastrophic indifference of public officials. It's a gripping tale, Gentleman brings the victims' stories alive and then tells us how she used her amazing journalistic skills to expose misdeeds at the highest reaches of the government (spoiler alert: the Home Secretary had to resign). Then she takes us to Jamaica to track down some of the Windrush victims stuck there. Okay, Mitford, writing about an equally horrific subject (The American Way of Death), has more jokes, but Windrush Betrayal has its lol moments. As she and Hubert, a man with whom the Home Office had toyed for 13 years - and who didn't quite survive, dying a few months after the publication of the book - emerge triumphant with his passport from Lunar House, a depressing immigration building in a depressing part of London, she says to herself, "This is one of the ugliest corners of Britain, and you could forgive anyone emerging from the Home Office's automatic glass doors, finally British, for having a flash of buyer's remorse as they survey this unwelcoming vision." This is a wonderful read and I can almost forgive her for being married to Boris Johnson's brother.
• 
  Bel

  This was something of a rollercoaster of emotion. The stories of the people whose lives were ruined by Home Office cruelty were almost unbearable to listen to, but I felt I owed it to them to bear witness to their stories. Then out of left field (right field?) about 3/4 the way through is revelation that the writer (at this point in the narrative causing a major political crisis leading to the resignation of the Home Secretary) is married to Jo Johnson, then a cabinet minister and brother of our current inexplicable excuse for a Prime Minister. You what now? I just couldn't even begin to understand how that works.
  
  Can't deny how important this story is, and there's a reasonably balanced (if probably unjustifiably optimistic) epilogue reflecting on how much the consequences of what is termed "the Windrush scandal" will mollify the cruelty of our society to those in other affected groups.
• 
  Anna

  Not to dismiss the importance of the amazing investigative journalism the author undertook to put the windrush scandal on the agenda, I do sort of wish I’d read about this from a black voice. That said, the whole scandal is truly horrifying and heartbreaking & we should all seek to know as much as possible about it to understand the past and present of race, colonialism & immigration in the UK. ✌🏽
• 
  Azade

  "This was how it felt to be made powerless; caught in the iron grip of the home office." This book uncovers several aspects of the Windrush scandal; from the underlying causes and societal condition that allowed it, to the devastating impacts it had on the real lives of individuals, and the dismissive reaction of responsible politicians when the outrage eventually broke out.
  
  In my view, the power of the book is in putting names and faces on the problem, telling the story of multiple lives that were torn apart or simply put on-hold as a result of what the author calls "institutional cruelty". Conservative government has been introducing anti-immigration policies for years, and has set unrealistically high targets for reduction of net migration, in response to the rise of UKIP in polls.
  
  Austerity measures meant the loss of governmental immigration experts who would understand the impact of their decisions on the lives of real people, and outsourced the implementation to private agencies with inexperienced staff, with yearly targets for deportation, whose financial gain was dependent on the total number of people they successfully deported. There was no more any opportunity for genuine face-to-face interaction with officials, who were making their decisions in an entirely paper-based process relying on tick-box assessment methods. Dehumanization of the process was a natural reaction of people who were making hard decisions to rid their conscience of the unpleasant feelings of guilt and responsibility. They were willing to look at those targeted as case numbers and commodities rather than individual human beings. Effect of the austerity policies on cutting the government funds to legal aid centres, and non-discrimination NGOs, created a deadlocks situation that completely muted the capacity of citizens to protest.
  
  This book is also a clear demonstration of the crucial role of independent and concerned journalists in scrutinizing the hidden impact of politics on voiceless individuals who are at the receiving end of these policies. Journalism can be the most effective way to bring the misery of marginalized people to spotlight, mobilize citizens campaigns and put pressure on politicians to take accountability for the consequences of their legislations and programs. "Collapse of local newspaper industry left no outlet where victims of home office mistreatment could describe their difficulties. Without journalists on the ground all over the country problems remain hidden."
  
  "The ability to feel outraged is a powerful tool. In order for the Windrush events to become scandal, there had to be an understanding that this is not how things should be. You needed to have a strong belief in the responsibility of state to behave differently; in a fair and just manner towards everyone." Over the past years, society has become desensitized to the consequences of austerity programmes on the lives of the vulnerable. There has been a gradual withering of empathy. This scandal was the result of a deliberate strategy, and not an unfortunate bureaucratic error, as the conservative government tried to make it look like. The only surprise here was that people cared about the miseries inflicted on people who were later branded as Windrush generation.
  
  Having lived for the most of my life in a country where officials never apologize (no matter the scale of scandal or the number of outraged people), Theresa May’s apology sounded OK to my ears. So my first thought to the author's reference to it as "half-apology" was to think of her as too demanding, and not willing to acknowledge regrets when/because they are expressed by a conservative government. Upon further reflection, the presence of such demands and the occasional push for extreme, are the vital element for achieving the middle-ground, compromised targets. In a democratic society, the radical progressives are not working against the moderates; they are working for them by making their demands look reasonable and by persuading the state/politicians to compromise. In a dictatorship however, any slightly progressive demand is used as a stick to scare off the conservatives of the prospects of yielding and compromise and often serves as pretext for a crack-down on all the voices of the campaign, both moderate and radical.
  
  In the final chapter of the book, we hear from one of the victims of the Windrush scandal, that he often has to try hard to diffuse his anger (at the lost years of his life and the un-necessary hardship he was made to go through) in order to protect himself. At this, I cannot help but ask myself: "how can one rid oneself of their justified anger at the loss of something that no amount of justice can bring back (time, life, or the life of a dear one)?". Isn't the internal reconciliation, making peace with one's self, the most liberating and yet the most elusive state of mind?
• 
  Bethan Evans

  Ugh this made me so MAD. The Windrush scandal and racist policies that led to it are a stain (amongst many others) on this country. So depressing that the recommendations in Wendy Williams’ are not being followed and people are still waiting for compensation.
  
  I liked this book a lot and did feel that the stories of the victims were centred and written sensitively. The hostile environment policies were also explained in an accessible way. I do think it’s a sad truth that mainstream journalism was a key reason that the Home Office actually acknowledged the mistakes (I don’t really want to say mistakes as really they were the inevitable result and intention of the policies but anyway ‘mistakes’) that led to so much human suffering.
  
  I have a couple of observations though (not taking away from my enjoyment of the book but based on my experience with the HO):
  
  There is a manner of surprise throughout the whole book about the way the Windrush victims were treated. In my experience this is not surprising AT ALL. The home office consistently ignores and others migrants, it is completely chaotic and the decision making is terrible. Not to mention the rhetoric currently being put out by the govt. Also I did find Amelia Gentleman’s glossing over of the fact she is married to Jo Johnson, a LITERAL CONSERVATIVE MP WHO VOTED FOR THESE POLICIES, quite unsettling. She was just kind of like ‘la di dah, we don’t talk about politics we just focus on our children’ and left it at that like that is a normal thing? Personally I can’t see how someone so outraged by hostile environment policies can be married to BoJo’s brother but hey ho.
• 
  Emma

  4.5 stars.
  If you're looking for a bit of non-fiction to read for a bargain price then please do pick up this book and give it a read while it is only 83p on Kindle (UK). Gentleman, a journalist for the Guardian who worked to expose the Windrush scandal to the nation, has paired harrowing personal stories with scathing political and historical investigation to effectively and clearly drive home the institutional racism and lack of humanity within the British Home Office and the Cabinet. While I would have liked to see a bit more by the way of primary sources -Gentleman collates many personal stories but often in the form of short quotes and paraphrasing- I understand the difficulty in doing so given the harrowing nature of the experiences and the upset of the victims that Gentleman, to her credit, very clearly depicts. Nonetheless, this work is a must read in thinking about the way Britain (mis)treats its Black citizens and residents, and its wider immigrant population. Also, as Gentleman herself points out, the book leaves us with a lot to consider moving forward when thinking of the lack of lessons learned, and of the inevitable papers and citizenship disaster that many already anticipate facing due to Brexit. A crucial read.
• 
  Georgie

  I'm rarely gripped by a non-fiction book. I mostly find them interesting and informative. Some have helped me look at important things in a different way. This book was devastating and heartbreaking and enraging. I was gripped by it and fully drawn into the lives and stories of the victims of the scandal. As an archivist, not only was I intrigued by the role of records and documentary evidence, but also infuriated at the destruction of the Windrush era landing cards. There are parallels here to race relations and state policies on 'Britishness' in the 1920s (when Black and Asian soldiers who fought for and lived in Britain were crapped on amd told they weren't British after the war ended). There are also parallels to the notions of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor in the 19th century in the different way 'deserving' and 'undeserving' immigrants are treated. Though this book focuses on immigrants from the Caribbean in the 50s/60s/early 70s, the aithor makes the very valid point that immigrants from elsewhere, or who have committed minor crimes, still face problems and hostility.
• 
  Mauricia Lewis

  This book was too good not to review.
  
  Written by the journalist who led the exposé on the Windrush Scandal, readers are forced to exist in
  the hostile environment that was primarily created to prevent illegal migrants from flourishing in the country, but that ended up tearing British subjects lives apart.
  
  Usually, I’m not a huge fan of non fiction books because I find that they have too many statistics and political jargon which is why I mainly read fiction. However, I noticed that I was really enjoying the writing style and I found myself retaining a lot of content. That said, this book is no doubt journalism at its finest. Something that really struck me was how Amelia Gentleman mentioned that exposing the scandal gave her job a sense of purpose, in a way that the whole reason she became an investigative journalist was to create positive reform and it is clear that her work has changed lives around the world.
• 
  Kara

  Heart breaking account into the racist dog whistle politics that led to the disgraceful "hostile environment" in the UK Home Office. The result of this deliberate policy was the brutal, life destroying impact on a generation of elderly black citizens who had come to the "Mother Country" from the Caribbean as very young children and no longer had the right bit of paper. This book is essential reading, it will break your heart and make you furious in equal measure but read it you must. Outstanding journalism bought this outrage into the public domain, eventually forced a government minister to resign, forced a Prime Minister to (sort of) apologise and created some resolution but it took years and people had suffered, died and been deported into horrors in the meantime. The absolute tragedy is that the same dog whistle attitudes towards "otherness" are still very alive in the current government and the current Secretary of State for the Home Office. Who will be next, EU Citizens, the travelling community?
• 
  Theres

  Fucking hell. Gentleman exposes the Windrush scandal (side note, I'm curious whether she got a lot more traction in her enquiries by being married to BoJo's brother or whether that hurt her) - government departments not really caring or listening until The Guardian comes knocking, and then resolving issues at speed.
  Having gone through the application for Settled Status myself, and having had to provide reams of paperwork (I don't necessarily have bills for every address going back five years) this book made me afraid, very afraid, and angry. And made me panic-organise all my paperwork.
  I was particularly angered by how Gentleman describes the home office focussing on "message management" above all, saying "this will now change" is an easy thing to do and doesn't mean very much. Made me get a Guardian subscription in any case.
• 
  Adan

  When I say this should be read by all I mean it. It's so heartbreaking what happened to all those people and it's so frustrating because I know things like this still happen today and like it makes me feel so useless and helpless but anyways every person should read this so we don't forget about the countless people who suffered and are suffering every day........Priti Patel can go suck it
  
  "The thing is, in America they don't like you, and they tell you so straight, so that you know how you stand. Over here is the old English diplomacy: 'thank you sir,' and 'how do you do' and that sort of thing. In America you see a sign telling you to keep off, but over here you don't see any, but when you go to the hotel or the restaurant they will politely tell you to haul - or else give you the cold treatment."
• 
  Melissa Surgey

  A jaw-dropping expose of the Windrush scandal and the systemic racist culture in the UK Government which led to the wrongful persecution, deportation and deaths of immigrants who had indefinite right to remain in the UK. The legal and political context is explained clearly but comprehensively and is embedded with the personal stories of Windrush individuals and their families impacted by the scandal which makes it a riveting read. I also enjoyed hearing the author's personal reflections on how the expose came about and her own experiences of investigating such a complex and high-profile government failing.
• 
  Melissa

  4 out of 5 mainly for the educational and interesting insight. I think Gentleman does a good job at recounting events and analysing cause and consequence. I've got to admit I was shocked by her casual mention of being married to a tory mp, Bozzas brother in actual fact. It does make me question her and her judgement despite her breezy dismissal of it.
  
  Writing wise, I enjoyed it. I preferred the first 1/4 or so, where she retold individual's stories, and found the last 1/2 slightly drawn out and repetitive.