‘Sitting in Limbo’ was a BBC broadcast on June 8. It told the story of Anthony Bryan, who in 2016 was detained by the Home Office and faced deportation to Jamaica; a country he left when aged 8. Anthony lost his work, home, health, and freedom. He is one of the ‘Windrush Generation’.

The Press published the speedy response from the Home Secretary to the film. She apologised for the treatment which Anthony received as a result of the Hostile Environment policy introduced by Theresa May in 2015.

Yet Priti Patel was part of the Government which entrapped people like Anthony. She applauded at the Conservative Party Conference in 2015, when Theresa May announced that the measure would ‘get rid’ of illegal immigrants.

More than two years ago the Government admitted its error in detaining and deporting people like Anthony who came to the UK legitimately. Hundreds of people are identified as victims.

The Windrush report, published in March 2020 concludes that the policy causing such suffering is consistent with institutional racism. Priti Patel can prove her apology is sincere by tearing down the monumentally offensive Hostile Environment Government policy which targets and discriminates against people of Black, Asian, Arabic and minority ethnic backgrounds seeking sanctuary in the UK. It is still stands in place and causes proven un-necessary State sponsored destitution and suffering.

Paul Wordsworth, Advocate – York City of Sanctuary