An opinion piece in today’s Independent written after the conclusion of the inquest into the death of another of the Windrush scandal migrants yesterday calls the scandal a symptom of our “broken and brutal immigration system”. The coroner ruled that the death of Dexter Bristol, a 58-year-old Grenadian man, who came to the UK at eight years old, was due to “natural causes” due to other “stressors” in his life additional to his application to remain in the UK. However, his family said that Bristol died after 18 months of unbearable stress imposed by the Home Office and was so fearful of being targeted by the system that he avoided using NHS services in the two years before his death.
The article states that this is an issue that: “multiple health practitioners have spoken out about, particularly since the roll-out of charges for immigrants. Last year, an Ethiopian asylum seeker was denied chemotherapy when she was found ineligible for free care by the Home Office and NHS. She died at the age of 39 last month.” If nothing is done about this ‘hostile environment’ these tragedies could become more and more common. Read the full article here.
