We wouldn’t have had this problem if we were white, say victims of Windrush
THE Home Office was yesterday accused of racism in its treatment of Windrush citizens by a grandfather who was wrongly detained as an illegal immigrant.
Anthony Bryan, who feared he would be deported to Jamaica despite living in the UK since arriving as a child in 1965, told a Parliamentary committee that his case would have been handled differently had he been white.
In stark testimony to MPs and peers, Mr Bryan, 60, and Paulette Wilson, 61, told of the ‘ nightmare’ of being embroiled in the scandal.
Mrs Wilson, a grandmother who came from Jamaica in 1968, was also wrongly locked up in an immigration centre and threatened with deportation.
Both gave moving accounts of their appalling treatment to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Mr Bryan was questioned whether he thought his treatment would have been different if he had been from Canada, New Zealand or Australia.
Asked if he thought race was a ‘big’ factor in what happened, Mr Bryan said: ‘In the Home Office? Yes.’
He added: ‘I hate to say it, but I don’t think I would have had this problem [if] I had come from Canada instead of coming from Jamaica.’
His wife Janet McKay-Williams, who worked tirelessly to secure his release from detention, said it was ‘because of the colour of your skin’.
Mr Bryan, from north London, was held in a detention centre twice, for a total of almost five weeks in 2017. He said his treatment had ‘broken’ him.
His trouble began when he applied for a passport to visit his ailing mother in Jamaica. He later lost his job after receiving a letter informing him he had no right to remain in the UK.
He said he told immigration officials who came to detain him at his home that he had lived in Britain for most of his life, adding: ‘But to them I was lying ... everything I was telling them, I had to prove’.
His family were told by staff from private firm Capita that once in Jamaica he could speak to his children and grandchildren ‘by Skype’.
He told the committee: ‘I thought I was going [to Jamaica], to be honest. I was resigned because I couldn’t fight any more. I just gave up.
‘Six weeks before I had buried my son, and all of a sudden I was in this lock-up even though I hadn’t done anything. I was upset.’ He said it was ‘torture’ being held in a detention centre at Oxford Airport. ‘You can see the planes landing and taking off,’ he said. ‘That was depressing because you’re thinking “Is that the plane I’m going on?”’
Mr Bryan was released from detention in November last year after a lastminute intervention from a lawyer.
Mrs Wilson, from Wolverhampton, who gave evidence alongside her
‘I couldn’t fight any more’
daughter, Natalie Barnes, had been looked after by her grandparents after arriving in Britain aged ten. She received a letter from the Home Office in 2015 and was told to report each month to immigration officials.
In October last year she was detained at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire, where she spent a week before being released.
Mrs Wilson, who had worked for 37 years, said: ‘The first thing I got was a letter saying I was an illegal immi- grant. They were saying I don’t belong here – I’ve got six months to get out.’
Referring to the decision to detain her, she told the committee: “Where could I have run to? My family is here in England. I wouldn’t have run away.
‘I was thinking they were going to pick me up here and put me on the plane and probably when I get there people’s going to kill me. I was thinking all sorts of things in my head.’
Mr Bryan and Mrs Wilson said it was difficult finding proof they had lived in the UK since the 1960s – although they told officials evidence such as National Insurance numbers would indicate their long-term residence.
Committee chairman Harriet Harman said it was ‘heartrending’ to hear what the pair had experienced.
Ministers have faced a furious backlash over the treatment of Windrush citizens who were given an automatic right to stay when they arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1973.
Changes to immigration rules in 2014 have meant some were detained and threatened with deportation.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid had told MPs it was not known how many Windrush immigrants had been detained.