UK - The Guardian
In a rare insight into the workings of Lunar House immigration HQ, Hubert Howard recounts how he lost his job and was denied benefits after the Home Office said he was an illegal migrant
For the past 13 years, Hubert Howard has tried repeatedly to persuade the Home Office that he is in the UK legally, having arrived here in 1960, aged three, with his mother. His repeated attempts to obtain a British passport were rejected, and as a result he lost his job and was denied benefits, leaving him with no money to live on. More significantly, he was unable to travel to visit his mother in Jamaica before she died.
Over the course of about 45 minutes on Thursday afternoon, a Home Office employee reviewed Howard’s papers, breezily admitted that mistakes had been made, apologised, and issued him with an A4 piece of paper confirming that he was not an illegal immigrant.
The speed and ease with which the situation was resolved reduced Howard to tears as he left the building. “Thirteen years. This has been painful for me. It has been painful for all the people around me,” he said, in the alleyway outside Lunar House, the immigration headquarters in Croydon. “It has been a struggle and it’s destroyed my life.”
Replies