Ahmed was born in 1939, and arrived in the UK as a commonwealth citizen in 1970 from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Since arriving in the UK, and over the succeeding years Ahmed worked hard to support himself. He was employed in various factories and railway stations before working as a tailor. During his years in employment, Ahmed always made tax contributions.
Due to his employment in previous years, he was granted a small state pension, but this was insufficient to live on. Despite living in the UK for 45 years continuously, Ahmed was unable to get his immigration status regularised due to bad legal advice and government policies like the hostile environment. Destitute and struggling, Ahmed was not allowed to rent or claim benefits. Like those caught up in the Windrush scandal, he was left in legal limbo.
His case was taken up by IHRC Legal and his Home Office application was funded by the IHRC Legal Fund and National Zakat Foundation (NZF). The legal arguments raised by our team were successful and Ahmed was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK, allowing him access to benefits and a more adequate state pension.
The hostile ‘environment’ policy has been ruining the lives of people in the Windrush generation and other immigrants for many years now. Those who were invited to travel from the commonwealth countries to help rebuild post-war Britain are today treated as illegal immigrants by the Home Office.
