Institute of Race Relations:

UK Muslims Reduced to Second-Class Citizens

Date: 12 September 2022 - 22:21

News ID: ۱۰۶۸۶۲

LONDON (Middle East Eye) -- Many British Muslims have been re- duced to “second-class” citizens as a consequence of citizenship-stripping powers introduced by the UK gov- ernment since 2002, according to a new report by a race equality think tank.

The report by the Institute of

Race Relations (IRR), entitled “Citizenship: from right to privi- lege”, follows the recent extension of the controversial powers - which have been extensively used against British nationals who travelled to Syria - in the Nationality and Bor- ders Act to allow citizenship to be removed from a person without no- tice in some circumstances.

Clause nine of the new law, which was passed in April after months of protests by human rights campaigners and opposition in the House of Lords, allows the home secretary to deprive somebody of citizenship without notifying them if it is not practically possible to do so, because of national security or diplomatic considerations, or “for

any other reason”.

Previously, British nationals whose citizenship was revoked were required to be notified by let- ter. Those stripped of citizenship have a right to challenge the deci- sion through an appeals process, and critics say that removing the need to notify somebody prevents them from exercising that right.

The UK has been described by researchers as a “global leader in using citizenship deprivation as a counterterrorism measure”.

Historic citizenship-stripping powers targeted at naturalized citizens on disloyalty grounds had largely fallen into disuse prior to 2002, when the government intro- duced new measures in an attempt to revoke the citizenship of Abu Hamza, an Egyptian-born cleric subsequently convicted of terror- ism in the U.S.

The 2002 legislation allowed for British-born nationals as well as nat- uralized citizens to lose their nation- ality rights. Successive governments

gradually broadened the scope of the powers so that home secretaries can now deprive anyone of citizenship if they are satisfied that doing so is “conducive to the public good” and would not leave an individual stateless.

No criminal conviction is required. Letters often state that individuals have been assessed as presenting “a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom”.

The government’s use of the powers surged to unprecedented levels in response to the perceived threat posed by British nationals returning from Syria.

Between 2010 and 2015, 33 people were stripped of their citizenship, according to Home Office figures. In 2016, 14 people were deprived, and in 2017 the number jumped to 104. In 2018, the most recent year for which figures have been released, the number was 21.

Some subjects of citizenship-stripping orders argue that they have been left effectively stateless, because the government bases its assessment that they are dual nationals on a right of citizenship to a parent’s country of birth, even if they have never taken up that citizenship or even visited the country.

Human rights organizations and lawyers have compared the powers to “medieval exile and banishment”. Critics also point out that the powers create a two-tier system in which only those deemed to be dual nationals are at risk of losing their British citizenship; a measure that discriminates against naturalized citizens, immigrants and their children.

Though it is illegal under international law to leave someone stateless, the UK government has used the powers against people who are dual nationals and against others who it argues are entitled to the citizenship of another country.

Frances Webber, the vice-chair of the IRR and the report’s author, wrote: “The message sent by the legislation on deprivation of citizenship since 2002 and its implementation largely against British Muslims of South Asian heritage is that, despite their passports, these people are not and can never be ‘true’ citizens, in the same way that ‘natives’ are.

“While a ‘native’ British citizen, who has access to no other citizenship, can commit the most heinous crimes without jeopardizing his right to remain British, none of the estimated six million British citizens with access to another citizenship can feel confident in the perpetual nature of their citizenship.”

Citing racist media coverage, politicians’ statements and the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism program, the report described citizenship-stripping as “just one aspect of measures targeting Muslim communities, in Britain and abroad, in the past two decades, which have helped to turn British Muslims in the UK into a ‘suspect community’”.