Windrush victim and campaigner Sarah O'Connor dies aged 57, by Bill Hicks on Sept 20, 2018 18:59:12 GMT 1, One of the most prominent victims of the Windrush scandal, who spoke in parliament earlier this year to describe the severity of the problems she was facing, has died aged 57.

Sarah O’Connor was found dead at her home on Sunday morning. A postmortem will be held on Friday, but her death has provisionally been attributed to natural causes.

In March, O’Connor told the Guardian she was facing bankruptcy as a result of being classified as an illegal immigrant. At the start of this year, she was so worried about her predicament that she said she was afraid to open the front door for fear that it might be the Home Office coming to to deport her, or bailiffs arriving to remove her possessions.

She moved to Britain 51 years ago, but had struggled to make officials understand she was in the country legally. As a result, O’Connor was unable to take up a new job and was refused unemployment benefits, leaving her without an income. She spent the final year of her life trying to extract herself from a spiral of problems that emerged because of an official decision to categorise her as someone who was in the country illegally.

Although O’Connor went through a naturalisation ceremony at the end of July and was formally recognised as British, her problems continued. In the weeks before she died, her landlord had given her notice to leave and, still struggling to get work, she was having difficulty finding a new home.

One of the most prominent victims of the Windrush scandal, who spoke in parliament earlier this year to describe the severity of the problems she was facing, has died aged 57.

Sarah O’Connor was found dead at her home on Sunday morning. A postmortem will be held on Friday, but her death has provisionally been attributed to natural causes.

In March, O’Connor told the Guardian she was facing bankruptcy as a result of being classified as an illegal immigrant. At the start of this year, she was so worried about her predicament that she said she was afraid to open the front door for fear that it might be the Home Office coming to to deport her, or bailiffs arriving to remove her possessions.

She moved to Britain 51 years ago, but had struggled to make officials understand she was in the country legally. As a result, O’Connor was unable to take up a new job and was refused unemployment benefits, leaving her without an income. She spent the final year of her life trying to extract herself from a spiral of problems that emerged because of an official decision to categorise her as someone who was in the country illegally.

Although O’Connor went through a naturalisation ceremony at the end of July and was formally recognised as British, her problems continued. In the weeks before she died, her landlord had given her notice to leave and, still struggling to get work, she was having difficulty finding a new home.