On April 28, 2022, a new law was passed in the United Kingdom titled Nationality and Borders Act. The new law gave powers to the Home Minister of the UK to strip British people’s citizenship without warning. Though the law does not allow the British government to leave anyone stateless, the law, however, gives power to Home Office to take away the citizenship of those who already have dual citizenship or have the eligibility to apply for citizenship in any other country.
To understand the act passed by the UK House of Lords, it is first essential to understand what citizenship is. Citizenship can be defined as a legal status or legal right that a person has to live in a particular country. A citizen has the right to have easy access to welfare, education, healthcare and voting rights. Citizenship provides a person’s identity and a sense of self and belonging.
In the UK those who are not citizens but have the right to live in the country permanently with many of the same rights have the legal status as ‘settled’ or ‘leave to remain’. In other countries, it is also known as permanent residency. In the case of asylum seekers, they are provided with the status settled before giving them citizenship after following the due process. It is same in more or less same in most countries.
Can a person born in the UK lose citizenship?
It is one of the most crucial questions that came up since the law was passed. A person can lose his or her citizenship in the UK even if that person was born in the UK but the descendants were from another country. According to New Statesman’s report, around six million people living in the UK could be affected by the new law. Furthermore, out of these six million over 400,000 people who were born in the UK but from a non-white ethnic minority background were at risk of losing citizenship if the Home Office thinks there it is for national security.
Notably, the UK authorities are bound to ensure as per international law that any person losing the citizenship of the UK does not become stateless. That means the person should either have dual citizenship or has an option to apply for citizenship in another country. The case of ISIS bride Shamima Begum was a classic example as she was born in the UK but her parents were of Bangladeshi descent. Her citizenship was stripped based on the argument that she could apply for citizenship in Bangladesh.
Changes brought by Nationality and Borders Act in the citizenship system in the UK
The government of the UK already had the power to remove the citizenship of anyone in the UK. The government had used its powers many times especially when it comes to individuals associated with proscribed organizations including Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. The government also stripped the citizenship of several individuals who obtained citizenship using fraudulent methods.
In these cases, the government had to inform the person that such a process was being initiated against them. Those individuals then had the right to appeal against the decision of the government. In many cases, it took several years for the courts to decide on the petitions filed by the individuals who lost their citizenship.
The new law provided the Home Office power to strip anyone’s citizenship without prior warning or informing the person in question. Though the government has said that it will use the particular clause only in “exceptional” cases, such as if someone was in a war zone, hiding or impossible to trace, it has been claimed by the activists that this act would target ethnic minorities.
In fact, in a recent report released by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) pointed out that the new law targets “almost exclusively Muslims, mostly of south Asian heritage, embedding discrimination and creating a lesser form of citizenship.”
Reasons that may lead to stripping a person’s citizenship
Under the new law, the home secretary can strip anyone of his or her citizenship if the case is deemed fit for the following reasons:
- It will be in the public interest and would not make the person ‘stateless’
- If the person obtained citizenship through fraud
- If the person has indulged in activities that may harm the interests of the UK
- If the person can claim citizenship elsewhere. It is notable that the UK has an obligation under international law to avoid leaving people stateless. Unless the authorities are satisfied that the person has or can apply for citizenship of another country, it will not strip the person’s citizenship of the UK.
Can the person appeal against the decision?
The right to appeal against the decision of the government is still intact. However, if the person is not informed, unlike before, the government can still go ahead and strip the citizenship of the particular person. The person upon receiving the information after getting stripped of citizenship will have the right to appeal against the decision of the government in the court in the UK.
How many people lost citizenship in the UK?
According to the Home Office, on average 19 people were stripped of their citizenship between 2010 to 2018 as it was in the “public interest”. On average, 17 people lost their citizenship during the same period as they obtained the same using fraudulent methods.
As per the immigration law website Free Movement, over 460 people were stripped of their citizenship in the UK between 2006 and 2020. Out of these 460 people, 289 were removed for fraud and 175 lost citizenship for security reasons.
The high profile cases where citizenship was stripped of
There have been several high-profile cases that made headlines where people were stripped of their citizenship. The first case is of Shamima Begum the Bethnal Green schoolgirl, who was only 15 years old when she fled to Syria and joined the terrorist group ISIS in 2015. In February 2020, her citizenship was stripped stating she was a citizen of Bangladesh by descent and removing her citizenship would not make her stateless. Bangladesh, on the other hand, denied it and said it would not allow Begum to enter the country. In February 2021, the Supreme Court of the UK decided against Begum and did not allow her to enter the UK to appeal against the government’s decision.
Another high-profile case was that of Tauqir Sharif, an alleged aid worker from Walthamstow. His citizenship was removed for national security reasons based on the fact that he had moved to Syria with his wife in 2012. His citizenship was removed in 2017. As per the Home Office, it was believed that Sharif had links to Al-Qaeda.
The division of asylum seekers
According to the new law, asylum seekers have been divided into two groups named “group 1” and “group 2”. Here group 1 consists of people who meet the new entry requirements while group 2 is made up of those who do not. If a person fails to get a visa in the UK, he or she applies for asylum. These are the people who come from countries UK authorities mostly avoid giving out visas. These people are now designated as “group 2”.
As per the new law, the right to claim asylum in the country is based on how they entered the UK. Those crossing the English Channel on small boats are to be considered committing an offence and these people will be liable for prosecution. The idea behind this particular section is to put a stop to illegal immigration into the country.
Group 2 people are more likely to send to a safe country for asylum, most probably Rwanda. Though there are a lot of aspects to what the law intercepts for the people who lost their citizenship, residential rights or immigration status based on how they entered and what their background or associations are, the law is, in fact, made to deal with the menace of illegal immigration.
The offshore asylum
One of the interesting aspects of the new law was those who seek asylum in the UK can be provided offshore asylum in the African nation Rwanda. In April 2022, before the Nationality and Borders Act was passed by the UK House of Lords, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UK and Rwanda that allowed the UK to send asylum seekers to Rwanda on a temporary basis to seek asylum in the African nation.
As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the UK is responsible for making the arrangements for the transportation of the individual along with other formalities. After the law was passed, those who ought to claim asylum and later citizenship in the country can be sent to Rwanda. Those who are waiting for the ruling on the asylum status are included in the list.
It is interesting to see that the UK, a nation that criticized India for bringing in a law to give citizenship to the immigrants who faced religious persecution in neighbouring Islamic countries, brought a law that according to a think tank targets Muslims. In its criticism of India, the UK echoed the baseless allegations of the activists and opposition parties that the government of India left out Muslims from CAA despite the fact that Muslims do not get persecuted in the countries included in CAA on the basis of religion.
