A man has lost his job after his employers ruled that he was an illegal immigrant, despite the fact he had lived in the UK for more than 50 years.
Michael Braithwaite, a special needs assistant, was told he could no longer be employed as he did not have biometric card. Braithwaite arrived in Britain from Barbados in 1961, and had worked at a north London primary school for more than 15 years when a routine check on his immigration status revealed he did not have an up-to-date identity document. He was then informed by the Human Resources department that without a biometric card he could no longer be employed.
The 66-year-old lost his full-time job in 2017 after the local authority ruled he needed to submit documentary proof that he had the right to live in the UK. He has been trying for two years without success to get the Home Office to acknowledge that he is in Britain legally.
Because he arrived in the UK before 1973 he has an automatic permanent right to remain, but the introduction of the “hostile environment” policy by Theresa May as home secretary in 2013 has required employers, the NHS, Jobcentre staff and landlords to request documentation causing problems for people who may not have documentary proof of their right to live in the UK.
Braithwaite is one of an emerging group of people who were born in Commonwealth countries and arrived in the UK as children who have discovered half a century later that they have serious immigration problems. Lawyers working for people in this situation say the level of documentary proof required by the Home Office is excessive, with officials requesting to see a minimum of one, but preferably four, pieces of documentary evidence for every year spent in the UK. Often GP surgeries and schools that might have been able to provide documentary proof of their residence have since closed, and records destroyed.
Public anger over the emerging problem is rising.
Mr Braithwaite’s lawyer has said Home Office records showed he had the right to be in the UK, but officials repeatedly failed to issue him with documents to reflect this.The most recent letter from the Home Office, sent this month, told him he needed to provide further documentary evidence to show he was in the UK before 1973.
Guy Hewitt, the high commissioner for Barbados to the UK, has taken up Mr Braithwaite’s case directly with the UK authorities. Highlighting the contribution that West Indian migrants made in the post-second world war era to the building of modern Britain, Hewitt called on the government to act with urgency and compassion to find a solution to the current treatment of some elderly, Caribbean-born, UK-residents which treatment exposed them to the risk of destitution, detention, and the possibility of deportation.
