Winston Jones's life was upended for ten years due to Home Office errors that effectively made him an immigration offender, keeping him from his family in the UK. His harrowing experience included homelessness in Jamaica and fear of government officials upon return. Finally, in 2015, he managed to return to London but encountered ongoing struggles with his immigration status, culminating in a terrifying dawn raid to apprehend him. Despite these challenges, he has turned his life around by using Windrush compensation funds to create a podcast studio in Manchester, offering local youth positive opportunities.
"I didn't trust the system. I thought they were trying to trap me," he said, explaining that he turned around and walked back to the train station as soon as he saw the words immigration centre above the door of the building.
Even back in London, he struggled to resolve his immigration status. In 2017, a team of Border Force officers mounted a dawn raid on his daughter's home, where he had been visiting, hoping to arrest him as an overstayer.
But he felt so traumatised by the experience of being wrongly classified as an immigration offender and locked out of the country that had been his home for 32 years that, even after the government had apologised for the Windrush scandal, he almost didn't apply for compensation.
Jones managed to fly home from Jamaica in 2015, having secured a temporary tourist visa. But even back in London, he struggled to resolve his immigration status.
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