Among the victims of the hostile environment in the UK are many thousands of undocumented children who were born here and entitled in law to British Citizenship but can’t either through lack of awareness of the extortionate £1000 to register for British Citizenship.
Many will be unaware that they need to register until they are refused jobs, education, housing, social security or NHS treatment in exactly the same way as the Windrush victims. Then, despite not being allowed to work or claim social security, the Home Office will refuse to register them unless they can scrape together over £1000, more than £600 of which is pure Home Office profit.
The £1000+ fees for registering children with entitlement to British Citizenship must be scrapped. No child should be denied their statutory right to citizenship because of money!
I have been pressing the Home Secretary on this issue and I, along with representatives from the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and Amnesty International UK, met with the Immigration Minister to make the case for ditching the fee. I also led a debate on this issue upon my return to Westminster after the Summer 2018 recess, in which the Minister of Immigration said she was committed to reviewing the approach to setting fees for nationality services. I look forward to the result of this review and will continue to press the government on this until the outrageous fees have been waived - just like those for the Windrush generation.