The Guardian and Observer 2018 appeal has raised more than £1m for five charities that helped expose the Windrush scandal, with two fundraising days still to go.
Generous readers pushed the appeal past the milestone on Monday evening, four weeks after the campaign opened in early December. The appeal closes at midnight on Thursday.
The five charities provide legal assistance, advice, advocacy – and frequently welfare support – for migrants and UK citizens facing injustice, homelessness and destitution caused by “hostile environment” immigration policies.
The appeal charities are: Praxis Community Projects, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), Refugee and Migrant Centre Black Country and Birmingham (RMC), the Runnymede Trust, and Law Centres Network.
The Guardian’s award-winning coverage of the Windrush scandal focused, in many cases, on individuals supported directly by our appeal charities. The charities’ work ensured their clients were not unjustly detained or deported, and in some cases meant they received the vital NHS treatment wrongly denied to them.
But despite the government’s acknowledgement of the Windrush problems, the injustices are continuing. The charities said they anticipated similar problems arising for EU migrants after Brexit, with long-established UK residents struggling to provide documentation to prove they have a right to be in the UK.
The total raised so far includes £45,000 pledged by readers during the appeal telethon in December, and nearly £10,000 raised by Guardian and Observer staff through fundraising events.
