The UK government has been accused of creating a “stark injustice” by denying urgent health and humanitarian support to British Overseas Territory (BOT) citizens, after a Montserratian woman was refused free NHS care and left homeless in Kent.
Cherry Brown, 69, who has lived in Montserrat for more than 15 years, travelled to the UK in March 2025 on a Montserrat government referral to receive treatment unavailable on the island. Instead, she ended up sleeping rough in Swanley, Kent, after being told she was not entitled to housing or free NHS treatment because she is a BOT citizen rather than a full British citizen.
“I became ill, can’t manage work any more … then, I’m sleeping in a park. I am homeless,” Brown said. “I just can’t understand it. Travelling on a passport that’s British.”
Brown, who suffers from hypertension and requires two knee replacements, was found by local council officials sleeping in a park. Ryan Hayman, chief executive of Swanley Town Council, said he paid for a hotel out of his own pocket before securing temporary accommodation for her. “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 stipend, while also awaiting confirmation of a £250 (EC$900) monthly support grant from Montserrat’s Social Services Department.
Romeo’s Intervention
Donaldson Romeo, Opposition Member of Montserrat’s Legislative Assembly and the island’s Premier from 2015 to 2019, travelled to the UK to lobby for Brown and another Montserratian, Robert “Shorty” Baker, who is in Jamaica awaiting urgent medical treatment. Romeo is calling for Baker to be transferred to the UK where life-saving treatment could be provided through the NHS.
In letters to Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Romeo condemned the UK’s handling of the cases, drawing parallels with the Windrush scandal.
“The injustice is stark,” he wrote. “Tens of millions of pounds (up to some £50 million) have been expended annually since 2021 by the FCDO on housing, welfare, and legal aid for some 60 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers … in contrast, the cost of ensuring life-saving medical, housing, and welfare support for Ms. Brown, Mr. Baker, and the small number of similarly situated BOT citizens and residents is minimal.”
Romeo argued that Britain is failing in its duty under both UK and international law to protect BOT citizens. “This is a defining test of the UK’s commitment to the equal worth of all its citizens,” he said. “To withhold such protection from Montserrat’s BOT passport holders like Ms Brown and Mr Baker, while extending it to others with no legal connection to the UK, would not only undermine justice but also erode the United Kingdom’s credibility.”
He also highlighted what he described as the inadequacy of the current FCDO-funded scheme, which allows up to 10 serious medical cases from BOTs to receive treatment in the UK each year. Montserrat’s tightly constrained budget leaves its citizens struggling, Romeo said, while others with no legal connection to the UK benefit from far greater assistance.
[Editor’s Note. The Falkland Islands has open access to the NHS. The NHS quota for OTs was expanded from four to 10 serious medical cases in 2023 for several BOTs, including Montserrat. Read more here.
Longstanding Inequalities
Montserrat, still recovering nearly three decades after the 1995 eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano, continues to lack key healthcare infrastructure, forcing many patients to seek treatment abroad.
Brown said she never intended to remain in the UK permanently. “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.”
Calls for Change
Andrew Rosindell, the shadow FCDO undersecretary, also criticised the government’s handling 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,” he said. “It’s taken far too long… 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.”
Both the FCDO and Home Office declined to comment on the specific cases.
Romeo, however, said he will continue to press the UK to recognise BOT citizens as equal under British law. In his letter to Lammy, he wrote:
“In this instance you have the opportunity, means, legal and moral authority to renounce a blatant double standard and demonstrate through your treatment of Montserrat’s BOT passport holders in desperate need that the life of every citizen, temporary or permanent resident of Montserrat, those who travelled on their own or were medivacked to the UK, other British soil or elsewhere, carries equal value and dignity, and has the right to equal protection.”
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