Saturday, January 01, 2022

British Citizenship of Six Million People Could Be Threatened by Home Office Plans

Dec 7, 2021 • Exclusive: British citizenship of six million people could be jeopardised by the Home Office Nationality and Borders Bill. Two in five people in England and Wales from an ethnic minority background could become eligible to be deprived of their citizen status without warning.

New Statesman analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics also finds that two in every five people from non-white ethnic minorities (41 per cent) are likely to be eligible for deprivation of citizenship, compared with just one in 20 people categorised as white (5 per cent).

Despite expansions in this area in 2014, the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill could extend the governments powers to strip people of citizenship further still. Clause nine of the draft bill states that the government does not need to notify those deprived of their citizenship if it does not have their contact details, or if it is “for any other reason” not “reasonably practicable” to do so. It also states that notice should not be given if it is “in the public interest” not to do so.

Video features Ben van der Merwe, Chai Patel and Frances Webber.

Video edited by Phil Clarke Hill.