‘Clear parallels’ with Windrush as UK-born toddler denied passport

Campaigners say lessons not being learned as three-year-old’s mother is asked to prove right to free NHS treatment

The UK has failed to learn lessons since the Windrush scandal, campaigners say, after a UK-born toddler was denied a British passport and asked to prove she has the right to free NHS treatment.

Three-year-old Zharia-Rae’s mother, Tracy Ann Dunkley, has been a British citizen since 2024 and the child’s older brother, born to the same parents in 2020, was given a British passport in 2022.

But Dunkley, from the Caribbean island of Anguilla, a British overseas territory (BOT), was told her daughter was not eligible for a British passport and was classed as a BOT citizen, which differs from full British citizenship and limits her rights and privileges in the UK.

Dunkley has also been sent letters demanding proof that the child – who was born in Birmingham with hip dysplasia, is non-verbal and is being assessed for autism – is entitled to free NHS treatment.