On 18 February 2021, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Office’s fee for children to register as a British citizen is unlawful, as it fails to take into account the best interests of the child.

THE COST OF CITIZENSHIP

It currently costs £1,012 in fees to register a child as a British citizen. Despite this, processing the application itself costs only a third of this price at £372. On top of this, there are other separate mandatory fees for biometric enrolment. The Home Office argues that the difference of £640 is used to fund other areas of its work, reducing the financial burden on taxpayers. Children who fulfil all legal conditions have a right to attain citizenship after their birth.

In the recent Court of Appeal case, the child “O” was born in the UK in July 2007 and holds Nigerian citizenship. Under s.1(4) British Nationality Act 1981, she is entitled to register as a British citizen because from her 10th birthday, she fulfilled the conditions of being born in the UK to parents who are not British or have settled status, and has lived in the UK continuously for 10 years. However, the Secretary of State dismissed O’s application, as O’s mother, who is in receipt of state benefits, could not raise the full amount to meet the high fee hurdle, preventing O from accessing her right to British citizenship.

THE RIGHT TO NATIONALITY 

The right for all human beings to have a nationality is protected under customary international law, as under article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, as children are in a special category due to their vulnerability, their right to nationality is further guaranteed by article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK ratified in 1991. The consequence of this is that a positive obligation is placed on the UK government to take every appropriate measure to ensure that no child is left stateless. 

Therefore, in principle, all children should enjoy this right without discrimination and regardless of the circumstances in which they live. However this is not automatically guaranteed to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, minorities, or migrants, because children from these marginalised groups already face financial hardships, and the requirement to pay this unlawful fee is just not affordable. The UK government must do more to enable all children access to nationality.

CONSEQUENCES ON THE CHILD OF NOT HAVING CITIZENSHIP

Children lose out on rights such as not having legal personality and having little or no voice to influence the society in which they live and participate. It can also affect their sense of belonging, right to access healthcare, or child benefits. When children reach 18-years-old, they may further lose out on the right to work or vote. In this case, the refusal to process O’s application demonstrates the emotional impact on the child where she felt that: “I am no less British than any of my friends. It makes me upset to think they or other people might treat me as different if they knew I don’t have a British passport.”

At an international level, it is reported that stateless children face other barriers to participate in their community. Examples include denial of education in the Dominican Republic and Malaysia as well as missing out on protective provisions, which result in them being placed at greater risk of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation such as child labour in Thailand.

CALLS FOR CHANGE

If the high fee remains in place, many more children will be excluded from their right to British citizenship. The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens and Amnesty UK’s Children’s Network are calling for the Home Office to rectify this situation by reconsidering the level of the fee for children to register as British citizens, taking into account the best interests of children, removing the profit-making aspect of the fee, introducing a fee waiver for cases where a child or their carer would be unable to afford the fee, and charging no fee for registration for children assisted by a local authority under the Children Act 1989.

Following the Court’s landmark decision, Home Secretary Priti Patel has indicated that the Office “will review child registration fees in due course”. The Court of Appeal has also granted the right to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court on the question of whether the law allows such a high fee to be set in the first instance.

Ploy is currently a paralegal in London. She has an LLB from Swansea University and an LLM LPC from BPP University in Cambridge. She is interested in promoting human rights injustices and bringing them into the public domain, with a particular focus on children due to their vulnerable status.

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