The Core Group has sent letters to the two Houses of Parliament about the latest bill on citizenship.
Lack of basic human rights in the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill
As I am aware, the Immigration and Citizenship Bill is a follow-up of the review on British citizenship conducted by Lord Goldsmith, as requested by the Prime Minister in July 2007. One of the key points of Lord Goldsmith’s review was “to consider the difference between the different categories of British nationality.” However, it is apparent that the question of the different categories of British nationality has not been addressed in the Bill at all.
1. Protocol 4 to the European Convention of Human Rights and Article 12 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the right of nationals to enter their country of nationality. Despite the UK being a signatory to these human rights instruments, British nationals who are not full British citizens do not currently have a right to enter the UK. It is disappointing that the current government appears to have no intention to take steps to forward these rights in the new Bill (House of Lords – Question HL349). This is despite the fact that EU laws already allow several million European Union citizens to live and work freely in the UK.
2. The Citizenship Review report prepared by Lord Goldsmith has recommended that all British nationals should be given an entitlement to register as full British citizens to reduce the number of British nationalities and also so that equal rights are accorded to all British nationals. It also mentioned that British nationals are unlikely to move to the UK even if given full British citizenship, as most are well-settled overseas. The new Bill will be an excellent chance to put these recommendations into place and to restore full citizenship rights to all British nationals.
3. While all British nationals previously had the rights to enter the UK, the removal of these rights and the segregation of British nationals in the 1960s to 1980s were based heavily on ethnic origin. According to Ann Dummett, a prominent writer on British Nationality Law, “the 1981 Nationality Act in effect gave full British citizenship to a group of whom at least 96% are white people, and the other, less favourable forms of British nationality to groups who are at least 98% non-white”. It is unacceptable that such blatantly racially discriminatory policies still exist in modern day Britain. Again, the new Bill will be an excellent opportunity to correct this clear racism in Britain’s nationality and immigration laws.
I truly hope that you will take these issues into consideration when examining the Bill.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Robin Tso
Founder
Copy of which can be downloaded in PDF form: here
