Nearly 900 children classified as stateless were obliged to pay Home Office immigration fees last year as part of their applications to become British citizens
A watchdog group has recommended that the Home Office, which is making a profit of £2m a month from charging children for citizenship, should consider scrapping immigration fees for children from poorer families. While fees do not usually apply to stateless individuals who had spent a significant amount of their life in the UK, including vulnerable children, when they applied for leave to remain. Citizens UK pointed out, however, that waivers did not apply to child citizenship applications.
New data, which was obtained as part of a freedom of information request by the community group Citizens UK, categorises minors’ applications for British citizenship by country of nationality and for those who are stateless, and shows that in the 12 months to September 2018 the Home Office received almost 40,000 British citizenship applications for children.
“Without citizenship, the government risks leaving children unable to attend university, get a job, or even without a nationality at all. We are urging the Home Office to reduce the cost of citizenship so these young people can have a bright future in the country they call home.”
Stuart Tannock, Citizens UK
Nearly half (46%) of the 39,000 citizenship applications made for children came from those whose parents are from Commonwealth backgrounds. Children of Indian origin were the largest group proportionally and accounted for nearly 5,000 applications while Nigeria and Pakistan were the second and third largest nationalities respectively. More than 18,000 applicants were originally from other Commonwealth countries such as Zimbabwe and the Caribbean. 9,000 applications were made by children originally from EU countries.
Citizens UK are asking for help to ensure that children born or raised in Britain, and who meet the strict eligibility criteria for UK citizenship, are not unjustly and excessively penalised, or in some cases even left stateless because they are unable to apply for British citizenship due to the excessive fee levels. The group sees access to British citizenship as vital if children are to play a full role in British society and reach their potential. But note that they are being penalised because of the £1,012 fee.
According to the Home Office, the level of the fees charged by the government is assessed to reduce the burden on UK taxpayers, and take into account the wider costs involved in running the border, immigration and citizenship system.
