Face of Nation : London’s Waterloo Station is to home a monument to the Windrush era, the prime minister has introduced.
Theresa Could stated the monument would be seen by “millions of people from all around the world” yearly.
The Windrush Commemoration Committee, arrange by the federal government final yr, will work with designers on the “next steps over the coming months”.
Occasions are happening throughout the nation on Saturday to mark the primary Nationwide Windrush Day.
Mrs Could stated: “This monument will be a lasting legacy to the tremendous contribution the Windrush generation and their children have made to our great country.”
Baroness Floella Benjamin, chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee, stated: “Having a Windrush monument located at Waterloo Station where thousands of Windrush pioneers – including children like myself – first arrived in London, will be a symbolic link to our past as we celebrate our future.”
Janice Irwin, from neighborhood group Ageless Youngsters, described the plans as “fantastic”, but additionally “long overdue”, and stated it was “a little strange” that it could be built at Waterloo Station, and never Brixton the place many individuals from the Windrush era settled.
The Windrush era arrived from Commonwealth international locations between 1948 and 1971 and had lived within the UK for many years when some had been wrongly instructed they had been within the nation illegally.
Some misplaced their proper to work or get NHS therapy, whereas others had been detained or deported.
The then Dwelling Secretary Amber Rudd apologised final yr for the deportation threats, calling the scandal “wrong” and “appalling”.
An estimated 500,000 individuals now dwelling within the UK have been known as the Windrush era, in reference to the identify of a ship which introduced staff to the UK from Caribbean international locations in 1948.
