Michael’s Story
After Melissa’s father, Michael, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2019, he had one wish: to return to his home country of Cyprus to be surrounded by his family and spend his final days with them.
Michael had come to England from Cyprus as a young man decades earlier as part of the Windrush Generation. He built a life for himself in Bristol, where he raised his family and worked for many years. Before Melissa was born, he had tried to apply for a British passport. This was refused.
Following his diagnosis, Michael, now in his 70s, decided to try once more. He was terminally ill and knew his time was running out. All he wanted was to obtain a British passport that he was entitled to and spend what time he had left with his family in Cyprus.
Instead of allowing Michael to fulfil this final wish, the Home Office responded with a long list of evidence they wanted him to provide. With limited digital skills and declining health, gathering decades-old documents was incredibly difficult.
“It was ridiculous things like school reports, photos of yourself when you were younger. I don’t live in the UK. I was trying to help him, and so was my mum and I think some of his friends,” said Melissa.
In September 2019, Michael wrote to the Home Office explaining that he had terminal cancer and did not have long to live. He simply wanted to spend the rest of his days with his family in Cyprus. Yet even after being told that Michael was terminally ill, the Home Office rejected his application again. This was despite the fact that he was already a British citizen and entitled to a British passport. The application was wrongfully rejected because the Home Office failed to correctly understand and apply the law.
When the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force on 1 January 1983, Michael automatically acquired British citizenship by operation of law. The Home Office was therefore incorrect to refuse his passport application in 2019, and incorrect again to issue him with a certification of naturalisation in 2020, as he was already a British Citizen. The Home Office kept getting it wrong.
“All the documents that they were sending my Dad, I look back at them and they’re full of grammatical errors, spelling errors, and they got all of the information wrong.”
Had the Home Office correctly understood the law, Michael could have fulfilled his dying wish to return to Cyprus. Instead, he was left in deep despair, hopelessness and severe depression, believing that his final wish to return home was out of reach.
For Melissa, it felt as though nobody was listening.
“They could just see my dad’s situation and they didn’t care,” said Melissa. “My mum was very stressed because she was living with my dad and she could obviously see how upset he was. She used to cry and say, ‘Melissa, he wants to leave but he can’t.”
Michael’s case had been passed to the Windrush team who issued the certificate of naturalisation. This meant that after so many years of confusion and denial, Michael could finally apply for a British passport. After years of the Home Office failing to recognise his existing entitlement, he and his family had finally heard the words they had been waiting for. But by then, it was too late.
It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country was in lockdown. Michael’s health had deteriorated significantly, and he was no longer well enough to travel. In April 2021, Michael died without ever receiving a British passport or making it back to Cyprus to spend time with his family.
“It was all very traumatic, just with him being ill and not being able to travel. My mum was really struggling, and I am just a single child so there wasn’t anyone else there.”
Unlike many people affected by the Windrush scandal, Michael’s greatest loss was not financial.
“My dad wasn’t really at a financial loss because he wasn’t one of the people who lost his job or his mortgage or something like that,” Melissa explains. “My dad’s was more that he missed out on time.”
‘With something as complex as this, you need legal support”
More than two years after Michael’s death, Melissa received an unexpected letter from the Home Office. Following an internal audit, officials acknowledged there was reason to believe that Michael’s family may be entitled to compensation because of the Home Office’s failings and encouraged them to make a claim.
It was a stark acknowledgement of just how badly the Home Office had failed Michael. Again and again they got things wrong, leaving him unable to access the passport he was fully entitled to and, ultimately, unable to fulfil his final wish to return to Cyprus.
“For that department in the government, there is no credibility, it’s very disheartening” said Melissa.
As she began researching the Windrush Compensation Scheme, Melissa came across reports from a whistleblower who described how staff had failed to take their responsibilities seriously and how, consequently, terminally ill applicants had not been treated by the staff with the urgency and compassion they deserved.
“I had a look at the dates and I thought, well my father was one of those people writing to them.”
Determined to seek justice for her father, Melissa began the compensation process herself. Despite being encouraged to apply by the Home Office, she found the scheme confusing, exhausting and impossible to navigate, as if every road was designed to end in failure.
“I don’t think that they are setting people up for success, and I don’t think it is clear. The overall process was not fair, and it was at the detriment of the applicant.”
Poor communication and disorganised documentation left Melissa battling a system that seemed to be rigged against them.
“I wrote them an email, and I was saying look at what you’re doing you’re destroying people’s lives on an unimaginable scale.”
After countless phone calls, emails, and complaints, Melissa and her family eventually received a compensation offer. But after the Home Office had failed Michael time and time again, denying him the chance to fulfil his dying wish to return to Cyprus, they felt the award did not come close to recognising the devastating impact of those failings.
“It is disappointing because you can’t put a number on that. But I think as the process has gone on you kind of become numb to it. At first it was disheartening and then, as things go on, you just have to think it is what it is.”
Looking for legal support, Melissa searched online for help. After contacting several lawyers, Nicola, the GMIAU solicitor leading the Windrush Legal Initiative, was one of the first to respond.
“Nicola was one of the first people to get back to me and she’s been absolutely fantastic with her support.”
For Melissa, having an experienced lawyer transformed what had become an overwhelming and exhausting process. What had initially seemed like a simple application quickly became a complex legal claim against the Home Office.
“I think that anyone who is trying to seek compensation should definitely seek legal support because these people will run rings around you and it will consume all of your time and energy.”
With support from Nicola and the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner team, Jamie Wiseman-Clarke, Joanna Munro, Ellie Serridge and Charlotte Boateng-Kennett, Melissa and her family challenged the Home Office’s compensation decision twice. Although the award was increased, they still believed it failed to properly reflect the impact of Michael’s experience. Taking the case any further would have meant pursuing costly legal action beyond the Compensation Scheme, something the family ultimately decided was not possible.
“We have taken them to the highest level we can within the scheme. Sometimes you just have to accept it.”
Despite this, Melissa says having legal support made all the difference. Without legal support, it is difficult for families to know how to challenge a decision or whether they have any grounds to do so, particularly when they are already dealing with the loss and trauma caused by the Home Office’s failings.
“I have been very, very grateful – more than grateful – and so has my mum for the support from Nicola and the team.”
Melissa and her family’s experience also shows why there needs to be an independent panel or Tribunal involved in compensation decisions, giving families a fair and accessible way to challenge decisions that do not reflect what they have been through.
Looking back on everything her family went through, Melissa says after being let down countless times, she and her family have lost faith in the Government.
“It just totally shakes up your life through no fault of your own. They are just ruining people’s lives.”
Melissa hopes that by sharing her family’s story, other people affected by the Windrush scandal will seek legal support before making a compensation claim, helping their families to receive some justice for what they have been through. But the reality is that no amount of money can truly compensate for the losses caused by the Home Office’s failings. This could not be truer for Michael and his family who will never get back the time they could have spent together, or the chance for Michael to fulfil his dying wish of returning to Cyprus.
Nicola Burgess, the lead lawyer of the Windrush Legal Initiative which is currently supporting 75 individuals to apply for compensation under the scheme comments:
Michael’s case really strikes a chord with me as he was completely let down by the complexity of immigration and nationality law and the Government department’s failure to understand the intricacies of the law. For the Windrush team, the department set up to right the wrongs of the scandal, to make such an error as issuing a British man with a certificate of naturalisation – something there is no power to do, is particularly striking and galling for the family. If they had received correct advice from the Government, Michael would have been able to fulfil his dying wish.
It has been a pleasure working with Melissa and her mum. Their bravery through grief to seek justice for Michael is remarkable. That the process has taken years and required numerous reviews highlights the flaws in the system.
Our thanks as always to the BCLP team and all firms who form the Windrush Legal Initiative – without their support we would not be able to do this work. If you or anyone you know has been impacted, or if you have any enquiries about the Initiative, please contact us: windrush@gmiau.org.