High Court Rules Home Office’s £1,000 Fee for Children to Register as British Citizens Unlawful
Court finds “mass of evidence” against Home Office child citizenship fee
Lawyers and campaigners urge Government to act quickly to end its practice of “shameless profiteering” from children’s citizenship rights ‘This is a landmark ruling. But the fight for justice for children born and growing up in the UK goes on’ – Carol Bohmer
The High Court in London on Thursday 19th December, ruled the £1,012 fee the Home Office charges children to register as a British citizen unlawful.
In a landmark case, brought forward by the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), the court found a “mass of evidence” showing that the fee prevents many children from registering British citizenship, leaving them feeling “alienated, excluded, ‘second-best’, insecure and not fully assimilated into the culture and social fabric of the UK.”
The case, which is supported by Amnesty International UK, has been brought by three claimants – two children, A and O, aged 3 and 12 and both born in the UK; and the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens.
The current administrative processing cost of a child’s registration claim is only £372. The Home Office uses the remaining £640 to cross-subsidise the immigration system.
Today’s judgment requires the Home Office to reconsider the fee and ensure that children’s best interests are taken fully into account in doing so. The court has made clear that where a child has a right to British citizenship it will generally be in the child’s best interests to be registered as British – something the Home Office had denied in evidence to the court.
Read more: Amnesty International UK media information: https://is.gd/88FYsV
