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WORLD NEWS Friday 1 april 2022
U.K. still struggling to address Windrush scandal failings

By DANICA KIRKA to a government call for
LONDON (AP) — The U.K. people from throughout
government agency that the British Empire to help
oversees immigration is rebuild the country after
still struggling to address World War II.
many of the problems that A program designed to
upended the lives of thou- compensate victims of the
sands of people of Carib- scandal has been slow to
bean descent wrongly tar- process applications amid
geted as illegal migrants, complaints that the Home
an independent reviewer Office shouldn't be re-
said Thursday, more than sponsible for resolving the
four years after the scandal claims from the people it
rocked Britain. mistreated. The Home Of-
The reviewer, Wendy Wil- fice in December acknowl-
liams, made that assess- edged the "slow start" but
ment in a report on how said it had overhauled the
the Home Office respond- program to make it simpler
ed to her original inquiry and faster.
into the Windrush scandal. Home Secretary Priti Patel
"Institutional ignorance and embraced Williams' lat-
thoughtlessness" surround- est report, saying she was
ing the issue of race were A demonstrator takes part in the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations march, in Brixton, "pleased" with what the
partly responsibly for the London, on Aug. 1, 2021. agency has achieved over
scandal, Williams said in a Associated Press the past two years.
2020 report that made 30 "Having said that, there is
recommendations for im- liams said. faces another 'difficult out- care, many because they more to do, and I will not
proving the agency. "The department is at a tip- come.'" arrived as children and falter in my commitment
While much progress has ping point," Williams said. "It The Windrush scandal couldn't produce paper- to everyone who was af-
been made, the Home Of- can maintain its momen- came to light in 2018, work proving their right to fected by the Windrush
fice has failed to implement tum and drive the initiatives when Britain's news media live in the U.K. Some were scandal," she said in a
some of the most important forward to achieve the sys- uncovered stories about detained, and an unknown statement. "Many people
recommendations, includ- temic and cultural changes long-term legal residents number were deported to suffered terrible injustices
ing improved training on required … or it can settle from the Caribbean who countries they barely re- at the hands of succes-
issues of race, hiring more for a situation where it loses were wrongly caught up in membered. sive governments and I will
senior staff members from impetus, direction and fo- a Home Office crackdown The scandal gets its name continue working hard to
minority ethnic communi- cus, in which event it runs on illegal immigrants. Thou- from the Windrush Gen- deliver a Home Office wor-
ties and increasing outside the risk that it may only be sands lost jobs, homes and eration of immigrants who thy of every community we
scrutiny of the agency, Wil- a matter of time before it the right to free medical came to the U.K. in response serve."q

First Nations meet with pope over Canada school abuses

By NICOLE WINFIELD mentum last year after the to traveling to Canada,
ROME (AP) — Drums discovery of hundreds of though no date for such a
pounded through the fres- unmarked graves outside visit has been announced.
coed halls of the Apostolic some of the residential The Vatican said Thurs-
Palace on Thursday and schools. day's meeting was held "in
out into St. Peter's Square More than 150,000 native a climate of listening and
as Pope Francis welcomed children in Canada were closeness" and would be
a First Nations delegation forced to attend state- followed by Francis' audi-
seeking an apology for the funded Christian schools ence with all three groups
Catholic Church's role in from the 19th century un- on Friday, when he is to de-
running Canada's notorious til the 1970s in an effort to liver a public address.
residential schools. isolate them from the influ- "If you were to ask me am
Francis met privately for two ence of their homes and I optimistic leaving our dis-
hours with the representa- culture. The aim was to cussion with the Holy Fa-
tives of the Assembly of First Christianize and assimilate ther, I am," said Phil Fon- Members of the Assembly of First Nations sing a traditional song
Nations, following his meet- them into mainstream soci- taine, who was national outside St. Peter's Square as their delegation is meeting with
ings earlier in the week with ety, which previous Cana- chief of the Assembly of Pope Francis at the Vatican, Thursday, March 31, 2022.
delegations from the Metis dian governments consid- First Nations in 2009 when Associated Press
and Inuit communities of ered superior. he led an Indigenous del-
Canada. Even before the grave sites egation to meet with Pope Pope Francis to apologize," tended residential schools."
"I feel the pope and the were discovered, Cana- Benedict XVI. Fontaine told reporters in "Our preference is for the
church have expressed a da's Truth and Reconcilia- At the time, Benedict only St. Peter's Square, wearing Holy Father to come to
sentiment of working to- tion Commission specifical- expressed his "sorrow at the a feathered headdress. "A Canada and apologize
ward reconciliation," said ly called for a papal apol- anguish caused by the de- full apology for all that he on Canadian soil, and do
Grand Chief Mandy Gull- ogy to be delivered on Ca- plorable conduct of some heard today and probably it on one of our territories,"
Masty of the Creen Nation, nadian soil for the church's members of the church." heard from the Metis and he added. "That is our hope
after the audience. role in the abuses against But he did not apologize. Inuit delegations about the and wish and we made
The trip was years in the the Indigenous. "It's 2022, I'm back, for an- horrible experience of too that very clear to the Holy
making but gained mo- Francis has committed other shot at … convincing many of our people that at- Father."q