Windrush scandal victim Richard Black dismisses settled status offer

A man who has spent 35 years "stranded" in Trinidad after his British citizenship was removed has dismissed the Government's offer to resolve his situation.

Richard Black is one of the Windrush generation who grew up in the UK but have been left without legal status.

Earlier this week, Sky News told how his repeated pleas for the chance to return to the country he calls home have been rejected.

The Home Office has since offered him a biometric card and settled status but he says he will only accept citizenship and a passport.

He lived in England from the age of six and travelled to Trinidad for a holiday in 1983.

After receiving the offer from the Home Office, he told Sky News: "What has to be done is that my citizenship rights have to be reinstated."

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He says his absence led to the break-up of his marriage and family and meant he missed the death of his mother.

"The first thing I would do would be to head to Kensal Green cemetery and pay respects to my deceased mother because it is a burden that I carry, a part of me that is missing.

"Don't they have parents - does Prime Minister May not have a mother or father? Or Miss Rudd? Do they not have people? How can anyone do something like that?"

In all the years, the anger Mr Black feels has not faded.

"It's funny that you could be dispossessed of your citizenship in just a matter of weeks.

"Is that not criminal?

"How could you create a law that could do something like? That can take away rights by the stroke of a pen.

"That's how the Nazis removed people's rights - one minute you were citizen, the next you're persona non grata.

"I don't want to say to it's racism but if it walks like a duck and quacks it is a duck and I'm not going to mince my words where that is concerned."

He says he has rejected the offer from the Home Office and is awaiting a reply.

The Government had promised that anyone from the Windrush generation who had built a life in the UK would receive free citizenship.

"You cannot allow people to bully you into submission," Mr Black said.

"That is something that is totally wrong I will never accept that."