Wind rush migrant in limbo 50 years on
IMMIGRATION: A Windrush migrant who has lived in West Yorkshire for more than 50 years said he continues to “live in limbo” as he waits to hear if his claim for compensation from the Government will be approved.
Lorenzo Hoyte, 63, who came to Leeds as a 10-year old, was finally granted a UK passport last September.
A WINDRUSH migrant who has lived in West Yorkshire for more than 50 years said he continues to “live in limbo” as he waits to hear if his claim for compensation from the Government will be approved.
Lorenzo Hoyte, 63, who came to Leeds as a 10-year old, was finally granted a UK passport last September.
He submitted a claim for compensation to the Home Office in April for hurt feelings, anxiety, depression, not being able to leave the country and loss of earnings – “basically, everything you have missed out on being an illegal immigrant”, he said.
The grandfather-of-six could not attend his mother or brother’s funerals abroad because he was not classed as a British citizen.
And he was unable to travel to the Moscow Olympics in 1980 or the Los Angeles Games in 1984 to see his sister Joslyn Hoyte-Smith compete for Great Britain in the women’s 4x400m relay.
Mr Hoyte said his life remains on hold despite being granted a UK passport: “We are in limbo and we can’t fully move on because we don’t know if they are going to offer us £20, £2,000 or £200,000.
“A lot of Windrush people who have put in claims have died while waiting.”
Mr Hoyte, from Wakefield, was born in Barbados and was brought up in the Beeston area of Leeds.
He has worked as a welder all his life but has had to work on temporary contracts and has been unable to get a mortgage. Mr Hoyte’s father, Belfield Hoyte, 96, has lived in Toronto, Canada, since the late 1980s and he hasn’t seen him for more than 40 years.
Mr Hoyte, who works as a welder at Wakefield Acoustics, in Heckmondwike, said: “Just giving us the passport changed anything.
“I’m trying to save enough money to go and see my dad, that’s all I want to do.
“I go to bed every night just hoping that I save up enough money in time to go and see my dad before he passes away.”
Mr Hoyte also a brother Luther and sister Dolores – both in their seventies – living in Canada.
He wants to travel to Canada with his wife Janine, 53 , and children Khonner, 21, and Tannia, 25.
He said: “My dad has never met my children and it is something hasn’t that I would dearly like to happen before he dies.
“I just want him to see how they have turned out. I want him to see the pride I have in my children.”
Mr Hoyte could not get a mortgage in 2005 when he had the chance to buy his rented Wakefield and District Housing house his family have lived in since 2000 because he wasn’t classed as a British citizen.
A Home Office spokeswoman, said: “Mr Hoyte’s Windrush compensation application is being processed.”
We don’t know if they are going to offer us £20, £2,000 or £200,000
Lorenzo Hoyte has asked for compensation after waiting five decades for a UK passport.