The UK has been accused of a “stark injustice” for failing to provide health services and humanitarian support to citizens of British overseas territories after a woman from the Caribbean island of Montserrat was refused free NHS care and left homeless.
Council officials found Cherry Brown, 69, sleeping rough in a park in Swanley, Kent, in April. Brown had been funded by the Montserratian government – whose budget is largely subsidised by the UK – to travel to England to receive treatment from the NHS that was not available at home.
Once in the UK she was unable to stay with relatives, and was told she did not have the right to housing or free medical treatment because of her status as a British overseas territory (BOT) citizen – which differs from that of British citizenship.
Brown has hypertension and needs two knee replacements, among other health issues.
“I became ill, can’t manage work any more … then, I’m sleeping in a park. I am homeless,” she said. “I just can’t understand it. Travelling on a passport that’s British.”
Ryan Hayman, the chief executive of Swanley town council, said he paid for a hotel for Brown and was later able to arrange temporary accommodation, but which had no access to cooking and laundry facilities.
“Cherry was stuck in limbo, hence Swanley and myself were trying to support her until Kent county council could house her,” he said. “Then, to add insult to injury, Cherry started to receive the bills [from the NHS].”
Brown is surviving on a small weekly stipend from Kent council, and said she had no way of paying the NHS for her care. Hayman told the Guardian that the Home Office had offered to wipe “any alleged debts” if Brown voluntarily returned to Montserrat – but that would leave her without the care she desperately needed.
Montserrat, one of 14 UK overseas territories, has been devastated by a string of natural disasters, including the 1995 eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano, which destroyed its capital, Plymouth, and forced two-thirds of its population to flee. Thirty years later, health facilities on the island have not been fully restored, officials there say.
Brown said she loved her island and was keen to return after she got the treatment she needed.
“I didn’t come here to live … I just need help to get my medical [care] to get me back on track and go home, because we do not have that kind of health service there,” she said. “If you get a cold, you’re OK. Anything higher than a seasonal flu, you’re in problems.”
Donaldson Romeo, a Montserrat MP and a former premier of the island, has travelled to the UK to try to negotiate urgent assistance for Brown and another Montserratian, Robert Baker, who is in a hospital in Jamaica and who he wants to be brought to the UK for NHS care.
In a letter to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Romeo drew a parallel to the Windrush scandal, when Caribbean people were wrongly detained and deported. He criticised the government for subsidising asylum seekers with no ties to the UK while refusing basic humanitarian support to BOT citizens.
He added: “The injustice is stark … British overseas territory citizens such as Ms Brown and Mr Baker are left in peril abroad, on UK and Commonwealth soil without … humanitarian assistance.”
Brown had been told by the Montserrat government that she had been referred for assistance to travel to the UK, and believed she had qualified under a scheme that allows up to 10 overseas citizens from each BOT to receive NHS treatment each year.
On arriving in the UK she discovered she was not on the programme, and the NHS charged her for her care.
“If I had known all of these things [would happen to me], I would have stayed home and died in my bed in peace,” Brown told the Guardian.
Under the policy, the overseas territories must cover travel and accommodation costs, and Romeo argued that the arrangement did not take into account the specific challenges facing the people of Montserrat which, since the volcano eruption, has been unable to restore its health infrastructure.
“It’s time for us as Montserratians to stand up and demand that we’re treated as equal human beings, as citizens … and insist that the British government provides for us to the best of their ability … that they at least treat us with the respect given under human rights law,” he said.
Andrew Rosindell, the shadow FCDO undersecretary, said the British government needed to do more to support the people of Montserrat.
“I don’t believe the UK government has given the support that Montserrat needed to rebuild its infrastructure and to get properly back on its feet. It’s taken far too long. I think that in Montserrat’s case the UK government needs to be more willing to assist with cases like this. I don’t think it’s fair that Montserratians who, through no fault of their own, are left without being able to obtain the medical care and support they need,” he said.
The Home Office and the FCDO declined to comment.
