Theresa May still needs to ease the doubts and fears of the Windrush generation
The Prime Minister was home secretary when she oversaw a "hostile" immigration policy and Windrush-era documents were destroyed.
Thursday 19 April 2018 11:48, UK
This week was meant to be all about celebrating Commonwealth ties.
Instead it has been overshadowed by allegations the UK has been abusing some of its oldest citizens and their descendants in an insidious and sinister way.
Caribbean leaders to listen to an extraordinary apology from the Prime Minister but the Windrush scandal is far from blowing over.
"I want to dispel any impression that my government is in some sense clamping down on Commonwealth citizens, particularly those in the Caribbean, who brought a life here," Mrs May said.
But that impression is far from dispelled and her government has not been able to provide convincing answers to some crucial questions.
The Windrush generation and its descendants, named after the boat some of them arrived on from the Caribbean, have played a vital role in Britain's post-war recovery and multi-ethnic society.
The news that some of them have been hounded by the Home Office has been profoundly shocking to many.
The impression that people are being pursued by immigration officials and threatened with deportation simply because their papers are not in order, has for many sounded fundamentally un-British.
Theresa May's ministers have been at odds with each other.
They have differed on the basic question of whether or not people have actually been deported or not.
We still do not have an answer.
They cannot produce an estimate either of the numbers of people who have been denied healthcare or lost jobs because officials have questioned their status.
But the PM is at the heart of the controversy too because of her role as home secretary for much of the period in question.
She was in the job when in 2014 a key clause of legislation which had provided longstanding Commonwealth residents with protection from enforced removal, was quietly removed from the statue books.
She was there during a so-called "hostile environment" policy on immigration.
And on her watch in 2010, the government destroyed Windrush-era documents that recorded when Caribbean immigrants arrived in this country.
The Home Office says it did so for data protection reasons.
But critics say the documents were vital historic evidence.
Theresa May told her Caribbean guests: "I don't want anybody to be in any doubt about their right to remain here in the United Kingdom."
Her government has its work cut out dispelling those doubts and fears.