Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May meets Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness at 10 Downing Street, in London, April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Summers

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May apologized to representatives from 12 Caribbean countries on Tuesday over recent harsh treatment by immigration bureaucrats of people who arrived in Britain as children between the late 1940s and the early 1970s.

The so-called “Windrush generation,” whose parents were invited to Britain to plug labor shortfalls after World War Two, have been caught up in a tightening of immigration rules overseen by May in 2012 when she was interior minister.

“I want to apologize to you today because we are genuinely sorry for any anxiety that has been caused,” May told leaders and diplomats from the Caribbean countries, who were in London for a summit of Commonwealth heads of government.