by LAUREN CODLING
A £1,000 Home Office fee for children to register as British citizens was yesterday (12) ruled unlawful by the High Court, as activist groups claimed the “fight for justice goes on”.
The costs “failed to have regard to the best interests” of children affected, a judge ruled as the court heard the charges left them feeling “alienated, excluded, ‘second-best’, insecure and not fully assimilated into the culture and social fabric of the UK.”
Children born outside the UK, and those born in the UK before their parents were granted citizenship or settled status, were required to pay the £1,012 in order to register their statutory right to British citizenship. The costs have risen steadily since 2011, with the last increase occurring in April 2018 when it increased from £973 to the current fee.
Currently, the home office makes approximately £640 profit from every child application it receives – which it claimed is used to cross-subsidise the immigration system. The administrative processing cost of a child’s registration claim is £372.
According to campaign group Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), who brought the case to court along with two other claimants affected by the fees, tens of thousands of children were affected by the costs. The judgment will require the Home Office to reconsider the fees and ensure that children’s best interest are taken into consideration while doing so.
Carol Bohmer, chair of PRCBC said in spite of the “landmark” ruling, the “fight for justice for children born and growing up in the UK goes on”.
“The damage done to thousands of children is dreadful and still far from fully quantifiable,” she said. “So much more still needs to be done so that children, their parents and carers, know their citizenship rights and to ensure the many barriers to exercising these rights are removed, including this profit-making fee.”
A young claimant, known only as O, said they felt excluded from the UK due to the home office charges. “I want to be able to do all the things my friends can,” O, who was born in the UK, said. “I don’t want to have to worry they will find out I don’t have a British passport and think that means I am not the same as them.”
In response to Eastern Eye, Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said a “reasonable” government would either reduce the charges or abolish them completely. “It’s completely unjustifiable to charge these huge sums to children who have a right to citizenship,” she said. “The government is effectively taxing people’s rights away, sometimes the poorest or most vulnerable.”
Campaigner Aditi Bhardwaj, who is a former protest organiser of campaign group Highly Skilled Migrants, said she personally knew families whose children had been affected by the fees. Some have lived in the UK for more than a decade but had been unable to register for citizenship due to their parents financial situation.
“This is a shame because we could potentially have another Windrush scandal a few years down the line,” Bhardwaj, who is currently working for NLS Solicitors, warned. She has recommended that there be a “sensible fee structure”, including the implementation of a fee waiver.
“They should really look for the best interest of the child and not how to fund other parts of their department,” she said.
Following the ruling, a Home Office spokesman said: “We note the court's judgment and will consider its implications carefully.”
