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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Ramya Jaidev

My friend, Anthony Williams, died too soon. What trauma are other Windrush survivors still going through?

Anthony Williams in 2020.
Anthony Williams in 2020. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

My friend Anthony Williams, a campaigner and survivor of the Windrush Scandal, died last month. I first met him in June 2020 after reading a bone-chilling account in this newspaper of how the Windrush Scandal swallowed his life whole.

Anthony arrived in Birmingham from Jamaica in 1971, aged seven. After school, he served with the Royal Artillery for 13 years. Later, he became a successful fitness instructor. But in 2013, his life suddenly, inexplicably, unravelled. The Home Office had declared him an illegal immigrant. He lost his job and was plunged into extreme poverty. Unable to register for a doctor or dentist, a tooth infection caused him to lose most of his teeth.

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