- BY Colin Yeo
Citizenship is a privilege not a right say Mark Harper and Judge Dredd
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"Citizenship is a privilege not a right."
So say both Judge Dredd and Immigration Minister Mark Harper. As has been pointed out, the UK government is now literally getting its immigration policy from Judge Dredd.
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Colin Yeo
Immigration and asylum barrister, blogger, writer and consultant at Garden Court Chambers in London and founder of the Free Movement immigration law website.
5 responses
Eric Pickles said that on Any Questions too. I did get a comment on Any Answers about the seriousness of depriving anyone of their citizenship – asking whether there would be some guarantee that they could become again a citizen of their original country and then citing my experience of following what happened to failed asylum seekers wrongly sent back to dangerous places with no ID for that country and their subsequent vulnerable life in the very big prison that their country had become for them. The Any Answers person said that T May said it would only apply in a few very limited cases so I said – all the more reason not to include it in the Bill that was already very problemmatic.
Judge Dredd seems to have confused deprivation of citizenship with deportation. Of course, the one could easily follow the other (if there was anywhere to deport the poor stateless person to) but they are separate processes…
Mark Harper’s comment is so relevant in the context of my PhD in relation to migrant women living in Scotland fleeing domestic violence whilst subject to the spousal visa system. In fact I have used it on my self designed illustrated poster which has drawn an interesting reaction from academics and interested parties at conferences throughout the UK. I anticipate it just got more interesting in the context of Judge Dredd!!! Sadly certain research participants that I have interviewed are unaware of their lack of citizenship which is only discovered by them after seeking help & some fleeing domestic violence did not think they could access support from the citizens advice bureau as they are not ‘citizens’, the lack of information is bewilderingly bad. In this context who is privileged? Certainly not the abused migrant spouse who has no legal status or knowledge of her rights.
Its worse than assad’s syria !
Perhaps another way the Home Office plan to restrict The Surinder Singh Route? Afterall, if you’re not British you can’t bring in your non-EU spouse that way either…