Home secretary Amber Rudd announced on Monday that British citizenship would be granted to all members of the so-called Windrush generation – and their children – at no cost.
In a statement to MPs following days of damaging headlines and condemnation of the government's treatment of Windrush families, Rudd also promised a speedy compensation process for those who had suffered hardship as a result of the immigration process.
Announcing that citizenship fees would be waived and those applying would not have to take the usual "Life in the UK" test, she said she was granting those affected the "legal status they should have had a long, long time ago".
The Windrush generation is the name given to those from Caribbean countries who settled in the UK between 1948 and 1971, and played a large part in helping to rebuild Britain after the second world war.
Rudd told the Commons that it was "never the intention that the Windrush generation should be disadvantaged", adding: "We were too slow to realise that there was a group of people who needed to be treated differently."
But she was met by jeers from the Opposition benches when she tried to spread responsibility beyond this government's "hostile environment" immigration policy. Rudd claimed it was a result of "a failure by successive governments to ensure these individuals have the documentation they need".
The new measures will apply to those who were resident in the UK before 1 January 1973, the date the 1971 Immigration Act came into force. They have the right to remain in the UK indefinitely, but some have had problems proving their eligibility, and have faced trouble accessing services – or deportation.
"These are not numbers but people with families, responsibilities, homes, the state has let them down," Rudd said, adding that government would also pay compensation to those who have been affected. She did not, however, disclose the scale of the payments.
Rudd also said that a contact centre would be set up to provide assistance with citizenship claims and that she was checking nearly 8,000 records dating back to 2002 to check that nobody had been wrongly deported.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott hit back at Rudd, saying it was the 2014 Immigration Act that had removed protection for the Windrush generation.
"This was foreseeable & foreseen," Abbott said. "Officials and MPs tried to draw ministers' attention to it with the passing of the Immigration Act 2014."
After concerns were raised from Labour MPs, Rudd said the decision would affect not just the Windrush families but "all citizens from the Commonwealth" who were in a similar position.
On Twitter, David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham who has led the campaign to force a change in government policy towards the Windrush families, said it was Rudd's government that had taken away their citizenship rights in the first place.
Home Secretary just said Windrush children can become citizens if they want to be. They were citizens when we invited them 70 years ago. Their citizenship is theirs by right, and was taken away by your government, not something that your government is now choosing to grant them.