The BBC has made a film on the story of a Jamaican whose life was changed by the Windrush scandal. “Sitting in Limbo” is a drama is about Anthony Bryan and his three-year fight with the British government to avoid being deported after entering the country legally and living there quietly for 50 years.
Bryan was one of many wrongly targeted and illegally detained by the government from 2012-2017 after it destroyed thousands of landing card slips that recorded arrival dates and placed responsibility for providing those proofs on the accused. Most of them were forcibly deported, although the full scope of how many people were affected still isn’t known. Bryan lost his job, couldn’t claim a pension or use the NHS, and was separated from his partner, Janet, and his seven grandchildren. As of 2020, 1,207 individuals have filed for recompense, but only 36 have been awarded money.
While Bryan has not yet been compensated, in May 2018 he was issued his official paperwork live on the “Good Morning Britain” TV show and a plane ticket to Jamaica so he could finally visit his aged mother.