Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

On 23 September 1967, in Southall’s Dominion Theatre, around 200 people who represented various immigrant groups gathered to create an organization which advocated for the rights of migrants, particularly in light of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) was thus founded, with affiliated organizations including the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA). In its early years, the JCWI was particularly focused on offering free services to those facing difficulties with the immigration system. Its founding chairman was Vishnu Sharma. At the time of JCWI’s inception, Sharma was General Secretary of the Southall branch of the IWA. He had previously vice-chaired CARD and had strong connections with the National Council for Commonwealth Immigrants and the Institute of Race Relations. Prior to this, he was a labourer at the Woolf’s Rubber Company in Southall. In 1965 Sharma and the President of IWA Southall, Harbans Singh Ruprah, bought the Dominion Theatre for £75,000 to create a hub for political and cultural activities for local South Asians. Ownership of such a venue enabled the founding and early operation of the JCWI.

As the government introduced increasingly restrictive immigration laws, the workload of the JCWI grew. The JCWI therefore moved to London, to streamline their operations. By December 1968 Baldev Singh, the JCWI’s first full-time employee, operated from an office in Heathrow Airport to expediate the process of resolving entry refusal cases. On 23 December 1968 The Times published an interview with Sharma which stated that, in its first week of operations from Heathrow Airport, Baldev Singh had handled five cases of refused entry involving five adults and two children, all of whom were in detention as investigations continued. These cases, like others the JCWI dealt with, primarily involved doubts about family relationships and untrustworthy advice by travel agents. Sharma argued that migrants were treated as second-class citizens as soon as they stepped foot in Britain. It was why the JCWI supported the Immigration Appeals Bill of 1968, which included instructions for immigrant officials such as producing written grounds for refusal for incoming immigrants to ensure organizations such as the JCWI could better support entry refusal cases. The Bill was not successful. During the last weeks of December 1968, hundreds of immigrants, primarily from India and Pakistan, were refused entry at Heathrow Airport, and the JCWI was at the forefront of resolving the cases, which mainly involved accusations of fraudulent passports. In response, Sharma pressed for a meeting with the Home Office. By 1969 the JCWI had opened its first regional branch in Yorkshire, organized by Maureen Baker.

The expulsion of Ugandan South Asians dramatically increased the workload of the JCWI, as those denied entry (despite being British passport holders) sought advice from the organization. The JCWI accused the Home Office of bureaucratic failings and deliberate stalling when it came to the cases of East African Asians, such as losing passports and leaving letters unanswered. The JCWI took the Home Office to the European Court of Human Rights for their targeted discrimination toward East African Asians and, on 14 December 1973, the JCWI won.

The JCWI worked with a range of partners, including academics, to host or contribute to conferences which focused on various themes related to immigrant welfare and activism. On 20 December 1968 the historian and activist Michael Dummett, for example, represented the JCWI during the Institute of Race Relations’ third annual conference, delivering a paper titled ‘Immigrant Organizations’, which focused on the ways in which Indian, Pakistani and West Indian groups created their own immigrant organizations, the importance of organizational networking in the advancement of immigrant rights and the significance of Black and South Asian people becoming leaders of large-scale immigrant organizations such as CARD or JCWI.

The JCWI continues to offer legal advice to vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers, particularly those who are detained in institutions such as the immigration removal centre Yarl’s Wood.