Anthony Williams arrived in Birmingham from Jamaica aged seven in 1971, and went to primary and secondary school before joining the army and serving with the Royal Artillery for 13 years. Later, he had a successful second career as a fitness instructor until 2013, when he found himself classified as an illegal immigrant and sacked from his job.
He spent five years destitute. Because jobcentre records had categorised him as an unlawful resident, he was neither able to work or claim unemployment benefit. He had no money to heat his flat, and spent most of the time in winter keeping warm at the local library. Mostly he ate 35p tins of sardines and pasta.
He was unable to register for a doctor’s appointment and when he got a tooth infection he was also unable to visit a dentist. The infection spread, and first all his top teeth fell out, then most of his lower teeth. He was so frightened that immigration enforcement officers would visit him to arrest him and take him to a removal centre that he disconnected the intercom in his flat and never answered the door.
When the government apologised for its mistakes and promised compensation two years ago, Williams, 56, hoped he would be able to start to rebuild his life. He applied for compensation the week the scheme was announced in April 2019, and in January he managed to get hold of someone in the compensation office who told him his case would be resolved in a matter of weeks. Six months later, however, he is still waiting and still living with the consequences of five years of enforced unemployment in a flat that he cannot afford to furnish properly.
As the government pays tribute to the “outstanding and ongoing contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants” on the second annual Windrush day, marking 72 years since the arrival of the Empire Windrush ship – a celebration created as part of official attempts to atone for the Home Office’s mistakes – Williams is angry that he is still waiting for redress.
“I gave the youngest part of my life to the Queen and country, and I’ve been treated like a piece of crap by the government and the Ministry of Defence. The worst thing is when politicians say they are sorry, and they understand what we went through. They don’t understand. They’ve weakened that word, sorry,” he said. “I was so broke that I didn’t buy a bed for this flat until last year. I still don’t have carpets or curtains because I can’t afford them, and I don’t use the heating. I had to sell my computer and my bike. It was really humiliating.”
The delays in paying compensation are being felt by many. In the two years since Theresa May first apologised for the Home Office mistake in misclassifying thousands of legal residents as illegal immigrants, more than 12,000 people have been given documentation confirming they are living in the UK legally. Only 60, however, have received compensation, totalling £360,000 from a fund that officials envisaged paying out well over £200m. Some claimants have struggled to submit the forms. Others, like Williams, have waited over a year without a settlement.
A Home Office spokesperson said his claim was being examined “very carefully”. “We will be confirming a compensation offer to him shortly.”
After living in different parts of the UK, Williams moved back to Birmingham in 2013 to be closer to his father and sisters, and began a new job as a cleaning supervisor. “Four weeks in, I got called in because they said they needed some ID. I gave them my driving licence, and they said that wasn’t good enough, they needed to see a passport.”
Williams had never had a British passport. He traveled during his army service in Cyprus, Germany and Belize on a Jamaican passport which he had lost some years earlier.
“They asked me to leave the premises and wouldn’t pay me for the month of work. That was a kick in the nuts,” he said.
When he tried to sort things out with the jobcentre, he was told that “as far as they were concerned, I was a person from another country. They decided I had no right to benefits.” He had a small army pension of £120 a month, but for the first year until he got some support from the council he struggled to juggle council tax, rent and utility bills. He received a series of eviction notices.
“Between 2013 and and 2018 I had no life. It’s hard to explain. I was worried about immigration people knocking on my door. I tried to limit contact with any authority, I’ve been underground. I would watch people from my window going out to work in the morning and wish that was me.”
No one could explain why he had been classified as an illegal immigrant after more than four decades living in the UK legally, paying taxes and national insurance. He spent years trying to persuade officials they had made a mistake.
“I wrote to the MoD twice, but they said they couldn’t help with an immigration issue,” he said. “I also wrote to my regiment. It was hard to do that. I had a real sense of being let down.”
He felt ashamed about what was happening and has decided not to tell his family. He asked for his middle rather than his first name to be published. He also feels humiliated by his missing teeth.
“I have difficulty speaking now because of the gaps in my teeth and I feel embarrassed about the way I look. If I had been more open and shared what I was going through with more people, it might have been easier to sort out, but I’m a proud person. I don’t like sharing this,” he said.
His citizenship issues were resolved very swiftly as soon as the Windrush scandal attracted political attention in April 2018, but he is dismayed by the ongoing delays to resolving his case, which he ascribes to institutional racism. “If I was white, I wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s obvious that the people being deported back to Jamaica are black people. I feel targeted.”
Yvette Cooper, the chair of the home affairs select committee said: “This man served our country in the armed forces for 13 years and was then left destitute as a result of the policy, culture and actions of the Home Office. The shocking delay in getting urgent help to people hit by the Windrush scandal is compounding the injustice they have faced.”
