A member of the Windrush generation who was born in Jamaica says he was left broken after being wrongly detained in an immigration centre because he was unable to prove he had a right to live in the UK.
Anthony Bryan, 60, left Jamaica and went to Britain in 1965 but last year was threatened with deportation by the Home Office.
On Wednesday, he appeared before a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights in the UK along with another Jamaican, 61 year old Paulette Wilson, who had a similar experience.
Both recounted their experiences before the committee, with Bryan explaining that he had told the authorities he had been staying in Britain for most of his life.
“They didn’t believe me. I couldn’t have been near 65 (years old), I couldn’t have come on my brother’s passport – and those were the things they were telling me,” he recounted.
Ms Wilson said her concern was where she would go if deported.
“My family is here in England, so I’m thinking, where would I run to,” she recalled.
Mr. Bryan agreed with a suggestion from MPs that a factor in the way he was treated was because he was black.
For Ms. Wilson, who has been in the UK since she was 10 years old, she received a letter from the Home Office in 2015 and was told to report each month to immigration officials.
She was detained for one week before being released.
The Home Secretary said this week that 63 members of the Windrush generation could have been wrongfully removed or deported from the UK since 2002.