Today, I had the opportunity to meet, photograph, and speak with Iciline Brown and her daughter Monica. Iciline is set to be the next subject in the Windrush quilt series. She came to the country in 1957 to work as a nurse. However, when she visited Jamaica in later life, she found herself unable to return to the UK due to the “Windrush Scandal”.
The Windrush scandal came to light in 2017, revealing that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens, many from the ‘Windrush’ generation, had been wrongly detained, deported, and denied their legal rights. Iciline and her family fought hard to secure her return, eventually succeeding after a hard fought struggle, and through the direct intervention of Priti Patel.
The situation arose because the Home Office required individuals to prove their residency predating 1973, demanding at least one official document for every year they had lived in the UK. This requirement imposed an enormous, often insurmountable, burden on people who had done nothing wrong.
Misclassified as ‘illegal immigrants’ or ‘undocumented migrants,’ these individuals began to lose access to housing, healthcare, bank accounts, and driving licenses. Many were detained in immigration centres, prevented from travelling abroad, and threatened with forcible removal, while others were deported to countries they hadn’t seen since childhood.
I think Iciline’s quilt will be a portrait with her family in the background.
Wow! I did not know of the Windrush Scandal. Racism never seems to abate in any country, does it? 😫 What a heartbreaking story!
Hello Laura! No it doesn’t – there’s all sorts of prejudice in this world. Iciline is a very brave woman with a determined family and I’m looking forward to doing her portrait.