Dexter Bristol facts for kids
Dexter Bristol (1960–2018) was a man from Grenada, a Caribbean island, who moved to the United Kingdom in 1968 when he was eight years old. He came to join his mother, Sentine Bristol, who was a nurse working in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Dexter was part of the "Windrush generation", a term for people who came to the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971.
Facing Challenges
In 2016, Dexter Bristol started having serious problems because he didn't have the right documents to prove his legal status in the UK. He was denied important financial support payments. The next year, in 2017, he lost his job as a cleaner because he couldn't show a British passport. This left him without money and in a very difficult situation.
His Death and Public Reaction
Dexter Bristol sadly collapsed and died on March 31, 2018, at the age of 57. His mother believed that his death was directly caused by the stress and struggle he faced with the UK government department responsible for immigration, known as the Home Office.
Many people spoke out about Dexter Bristol's situation and death:
- His local Member of Parliament (MP), David Lammy, called what happened to Dexter "a tragedy".
- Jeremy Corbyn, who was the leader of the main opposition political party at the time, said that Dexter's mother "argued, powerfully and convincingly, that this is racism. He was the victim of [British Government] policies."
- The Prime Minister of Grenada, Keith Mitchell, said that "no amount of compensation can deal with pain" regarding Dexter's death.
- The famous poet Benjamin Zephaniah also spoke about the injustice, saying, “I’d like to see heads roll, but how do you compensate somebody like the mother of Dexter Bristol?”
The Inquest
On August 28, 2018, an official investigation, called an inquest, was held to find out why Dexter Bristol died. The inquest concluded that he died from "acute cardiac arrhythmia," which means a sudden problem with his heart's rhythm. However, the coroner (the official leading the inquest) also agreed that stress had played a part in his death.
Dexter's family left the inquest because the coroner would not allow the Home Office to be officially named as an "interested party" in the investigation. The family wanted the inquest to look closely at how the Home Office's actions might have contributed to his death. It was also revealed that Dexter had not used the NHS healthcare services since August 2016 because he thought he wasn't allowed to due to his immigration status.
See also
