Windrush scandal – woman finally given passport after 51 years: Joyce’s story

Joyce was born in Jamaica and arrived in the UK in 1972 as a 10-year-old child. After her original Jamaican passport was lost, she had no way to prove her legal status to remain in the UK and lived in constant fear of being deported.

Applying for citizenship

Joyce first applied for a passport in 1988, but confusion about her surname led the Home Office to say they could find no record of her, and she was refused.

A single mother to five children, Joyce struggled financially and missed out on going abroad to attend her grandmother’s funeral and her daughter’s wedding. She was even prevented from marrying because she was asked to confirm her identity by presenting a passport to the Registry Office.

Joyce spent decades fearing both that she would be expelled from the UK if she couldn’t prove her status, and that she would not be allowed back into the country if she travelled on a Jamaican passport. Her troubles extended to her children, who were also denied British Citizenship, despite being born in the UK. As her children were not recognised as British, they couldn’t get British passports and were unable to go on holiday to see family or attend school trips.

The years of stress and uncertainty around her legal status have negatively affected Joyce and she suffers from clinical depression and insomnia.

Once the ‘Windrush scandal’ broke, the Home Office confirmed that her daughters were indeed born British and they were rightly granted British Citizenship through the Windrush Scheme, although by this time they were all adults.

Getting help

After hearing about the Windrush Compensation Scheme at surgeries held the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, she telephoned them and was advised to go to Brixton Town Hall to collect a claim form.  She submitted the claim herself but was unsuccessful. Joyce approached United Legal Access (ULA) in 2022 because her daughter had already started a claim with them and suggested she do so as well.

Joyce said: “Working with ULA was amazing, because if it weren’t for them, I’d still be fighting my case.”

Making a claim

After her initial claim was unsuccessful, pro bono lawyer Ciara Stafford from Ropes & Gray teamed with ULA to put an appeal together, based on three elements:

• The emotional and psychological impact caused by her inability to prove her status, including feeling scared about her unsettled status and afraid to take action in case she was deported.
• The humiliation, embarrassment and sense of shame as a result of her children’s struggles to prove their own status as a result of her unsettled position.
• The inability to travel to family or community events.

She won, and the Home Office granted her an award of £20,000 for the negative impact on her life.              

On working with Joyce’s appeal, Ciara said: “The work ULA does to assist those affected by the Windrush scandal is incredibly important and I am very proud to have been a part of that.

Navigating a complex and slow claims system, established by the very body that sits at the centre of the scandal, can make the process for seeking compensation and justice a daunting prospect and a hard-fought one. It has been extremely rewarding to be able to help those affected through that process and to see the importance of a successful outcome, not simply in terms of the impact of a compensation award, but also in terms of the formal acknowledgment and apology each person affected deserves. It is a great source of pride to be able to assist in at least partially righting the injustices suffered.”

Joyce said she felt amazing when the award paid, but through the process, felt like she didn’t exist and that there was a grave injustice. She says now she feels like a human being, and obtained her first British passport in 2023 at the age of 61.

*name changed to protect anonymity