An asylum seeker from Britain, a victim of the UK's Windrush scandal, has been denied refugee status after New Zealand's appeal tribunal ruled it had no jurisdiction.

The Briton, who has Jamaican heritage, claimed they were stateless, had previously been detained by UK police and suffered racial discrimination in housing and healthcare.

It is one of only seven asylum claims from UK citizens in appeal tribunal records, including one from a man claiming he was at risk from the Mafia-led family of his English girlfriend.

In the latest appeal, the non-binary asylum seeker said they were placed under house arrest several times in the UK and Ireland and forced to undergo medical trials.

The appeal decision does not go into detail about their claim, as the tribunal had to first consider whether it had jurisdiction to decide the case.

"As a person of Jamaican heritage, they had been a victim of the Windrush scandal in the United Kingdom and as such, had lost their British citizenship and were stateless," the tribunal's summary of the claimant's case said.

"They had been denied access to housing, business and educational grants, and had money seized from their bank account by the British government, on account of their race."

The claimant, aged in their 40s, had first come to New Zealand in 2020 and was rejected by the Refugee Status Unit.

"It accepted that the appellant was a non-binary British national of Jamaican heritage but otherwise rejected the credibility of their claim," the appeals the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) said.

"The Unit's reasons for doing so need not be set out for the purposes of this decision."

The UK national did not appeal that 2022 decision to the IPT and left New Zealand a few months later, but returned this year.

A second claim was refused by the Refugee Status Unit (RSU) in June, and was this time appealed to the IPT.

"They stood by the matters they had raised in their first claim," the RSU said.

"They have continued to have issues with the local authorities where they lived in the United Kingdom and have continued to struggle to secure assistance with housing and healthcare.

"In either 2024 or 2025, they moved to Germany where they sought support and then refugee status. The German government considered them to be stateless and refused to provide them with any funding to support their housing or German integration needs."

The claimant said they were seeking refugee and protected person status in New Zealand as a means of securing rights they had been denied in Britain.

The applicant, who had no lawyer, was sent a letter by the Refugee Status Unit on June 10 this year, requesting submissions on a point of immigration law.

Their request for a two-month extension to get advice was refused, with the RSU deciding the claim was 'manifestly unfounded' and repeated their first claim.

The IPT appeals tribunal upheld the refugee and protection officer's view that it had no jurisdiction to consider the appeal, rejecting the request for time to make submissions and potentially get legal aid.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the Tribunal records that it has turned its mind to whether the rules of natural justice and the principles of fairness require the appellant to be put on notice as to this issue and given the opportunity to provide submissions.

"It has determined that it does not. Little, if any, point is served by doing so. This is not a matter relating to the tribunal's power to regulate its own procedure, or the exercise of any discretion, but a question of jurisdiction."

Senior immigration and refugee lawyer Simon Graham, who is not connected to the case, said the next step for someone rejected by the IPT was the High Court.

The claimant could potentially address the issue in the UK.

Windrush

Members of the Windrush generation are said to have suffered from statelessness-like conditions.

Windrush was named after a ship that brought Commonwealth residents to the UK after the Second World War to fill labour shortages.

When their plight first became public in 2017, it shed light on an an estimated 57,000 Caribbean people who had lived there for decades, with the right to remain indefinitely.

But the British government had kept no formal records of them, and many were denied basic rights, treated as illegal immigrants and sometimes detained and deported, according to the subsequent UK inquiry.

Children had been treated as educationally subnormal, and as adults had lost their jobs or homes when they could not produce official paperwork about their status.

British asylum seekers

Although no public figures exist for the number of UK asylum claims in New Zealand, the appeal tribunal's records show three with British citizenship and four UK dual nationals, dating back to 1997.

One of the earliest claims is a man who claimed to have fled Britain in fear of Mafia repercussions after he moved in with his girlfriend.

"But from this time, the appellant received some anonymous phone calls threatening him to leave the country or bad things would happen to him. The appellant took no notice of these calls but later received an anonymous letter threatening that he must let his partner return to her family 'or else'.

"One week later, the appellant's car was set on fire for no apparent reason and the appellant realised he was in serious trouble."

When he told his partner what happened she "broke down and told him that her father was a member of the Mafia and that he did not approve of her association with [him] as she was betrothed to an Italian Mafia member."

The tribunal ruled he could obtain state protection against persecution in the UK.

Another unsuccessful case, publicised at the time, involved dual national Daniel Butler, who claimed he needed refuge from paramilitaries in Ireland.

None of the other claimants were granted refugee status, although three got temporary reprieves from deportation due to humanitarian circumstances.