UK ‘Bank Is Closed, Door Is Locked’ Deads Visas From Nations Seeking Slavery Reparations

During the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Sir Keir Starmer said this generation should have a conversation about the history of slavery, adding that the UK should be “forward-looking” in its stance on reparations.

Reform UK announced they are stopping visas for people from any country that keeps demanding slavery reparations, calling the measure “insulting,” The Guardian reports.

Over the last 20 years, 3.8 million visas have been issued to people from countries seeking reparations. Although seven European countries, including the UK, enslaved and trafficked over 15 million Africans across the Atlantic, Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, called it “insulting.”

“A growing number of countries are demanding reparations from Britain. These countries ignore the fact that Britain made huge sacrifices to be the first major power to outlaw slavery and enforce this prohibition,” he said.

He continued, “The bank is closed and the door is locked for anyone who wants to “use history as a weapon to drain our treasury.” “The United Kingdom is not an ATM for ethnic grievances of the past, and we will no longer tolerate being ridiculed on the world stage,” he continued.

“While countries like Jamaica, Nigeria and Ghana ramp up their demands for reparations, the Westminster establishment has rewarded them. Enough is enough.”

Yusef’s remarks stem from a 2023 reparations report from former International Court of Justice Judge Patrick Robinson. The report recommended that the UK pay a total of £18.8 trillion — equal to USD $24 trillion — in reparations to 14 countries, according to The Independent. Those countries include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and Montserrat.

But not every European leader feels the same way as Yusef about visas and reparations.

During the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Sir Keir Starmer feels this generation should have a conversation about the history of slavery, adding that the UK should be “forward-looking” in its stance on reparations. “I think our generation can say the slave trade and practice was abhorrent, and we should, you know, we talk about our history,” he said when asked if this generation should be held responsible for the actions of the past.

“We can’t change our history, but we should certainly talk about our history.”

Meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves claims Britain can’t afford the hefty price tag of paying reparations for its part in the slave trade.

Reparations have been a topic of conversation both overseas and within the United States, with commissions in California and Illinois making moves.

In Detroit, a reparations initiative is helping Black residents get access to funding for homeownership and trace their ancestral roots. Reparation Generation, a group dedicated to building Black wealth and supporting data for a potential federal reparations program, selected six new recipients for its third round of homeownership grants, with each receiving $25,000 in down payment assistance, home-related expenses, and genealogy research support.