LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Britain’s wrongful detention and deportation of Caribbean migrants was the result of decades of racist immigration laws designed to reduce the country’s non-white population, a long-withheld official report showed on Thursday.

Known as the Windrush scandal, the revelations of the mistreatment of thousands of Caribbean people damaged the authority of former British prime minister Theresa May, who had led efforts to tackle illegal immigration when she led the interior ministry, or Home Office.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Caribbean came to Britain between 1948 and 1971 on ships such as the Empire Windrush to fill labour shortages in post-war Britain.

In 2018, Britain had to apologise for its treatment of the “Windrush generation”, after a tightening of immigration policy meant thousands were denied basic rights despite having lived in Britain for decades and dozens were wrongly deported.

Britain’s previous Conservative government in 2022 refused to publish the “The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal” report, rejecting requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

The report, now released by the newly elected Labour government, found that between 1950 and 1981 “every single piece” of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of Black people allowed to live and work in Britain.