Windrush victim: I had more help from local supermarket staff than Home Office
6 May 2021, 15:56 | Updated: 6 May 2021, 16:00
Windrush scandal victim Carl Nwazota talks to LBC
This is the moment a Windrush scandal victim told LBC he received more help from his local supermarket staff than the Home Office.
Carl Nwazota, who was born in Wembley, told LBC's James O'Brien about how he initially faced trouble with the Government department after first attempting to get a new passport in 2001.
He told James: "[I got] no reply from the Home Office. So I didn't think anything of it. I thought maybe I'd filled in the application wrong or I'd done something wrong.
"So I re-applied a few other times and [the] same thing [happened]. [I got] no reply, nothing back."
It took until April 2020, according to the Home Office, for it to inform Mr Nwazota that as he was born in the United Kingdom in 1974 he was automatically a British citizen.
The Home Office has said it is investigating Mr Nwazota's claims about his passport.
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Speaking to James about how the Home Office's treatment of him impacted his life, he explained: "I couldn't go anywhere [abroad]."
Mr Nwazota also said that he "just couldn't get a job anywhere".
He explained: "I had issues being paid from certain jobs. I was doing basic construction work around that time.
"And a few employers didn't even pay me on the premise that they couldn't get any tax details for me.
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"And they just kept the money basically. [It was] hundreds of pounds. But I couldn't really say anything. I couldn't do anything."
Mr Nwazota later told James that, as a result of the situation, he ended up "living in a van in and around a supermarket car park".
He then said: "I had more help from the members of staff in my local supermarket than I did from the Home Office."
Asked by James why he thinks what he went through happened to him, Mr Nwazota replied: "Because I have a Nigerian surname and I am black. That's it."
'The Windrush compensation scheme has an uncomfortable echo of original problems'
In response to the LBC exchange, a Home Office spokesperson has said: “We are determined to right the wrongs of the Windrush generation and make sure they get the compensation and support they deserve for the injustices they faced.
“Mr Carl Nwazota is a British citizen. He has not made a claim under the Windrush Compensation Scheme to date.
“The Windrush Compensation Scheme is open to individuals, including close family members of eligible claimants where there is evidence of certain direct financial losses, or significant impact on their life.”
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