Home Office asks Windrush man's son for DNA test

The son of a man who was a victim of the Windrush scandal says the Home Office asked him to do a DNA test to prove his relationship to his father as part of his compensation application. Dijoun Jhagroo-Bryan received the "outrageous" letter asking for more evidence of his relationship with his father, Anthony Bryan, who was nearly deported in 2017 after living in Britain for 50 years.

A human rights lawyer representing hundreds of Windrush victims said the Home Office's request was "intrusive and traumatic". The Home Office now says Mr Jhagroo-Bryan is not required to provide DNA evidence after BBC News asked for a response to this case. The government apologised in 2018 after some of the Windrush generation and their children were wrongly told they were in the UK illegally.

Its hostile immigration policy affected their right to work, find homes and have NHS treatment. Some were detained and faced deportation.Anthony Bryan, 66, came to the UK from Jamaica when he was eight. In 2017, he was arrested, held in a detention centre twice - once for nearly three weeks - and almost deported back to Jamaica.Mr Bryan, who is on medication for a serious lung condition, accepted a compensation offer from the Home Office in 2023 after five years of what he says were constant setbacks and delays.

Children of Windrush descendants are also eligible to apply for compensation if they can prove they have suffered losses. A similar scheme is in place for families of those affected by the Post Office scandal. Dijoun Jhagroo-Bryan, 39, has applied for compensation as he says he has been left with long-term trauma and financial losses, and his own children were affected after not being able to see their grandfather when he was detained. "I've suffered watching my dad being held in prison and I've suffered going through the steps that I needed to do in order to get him to stay in the UK," he said.