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UK’s racist citizenship system has reduced Muslims to ‘second-class’, says thinktank

September 12, 2022 at 1:49 pm

British Muslims line up each day for Al-Aser or afternoon prayer at the East London mosque December 9, 2004 in London, England [Abid Katib/Getty Images]

British Muslims have had their citizenship reduced to “second-class” status, a new report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has claimed.

The think tank has found that powers introduced since 2002 have enshrined a racist citizenship system in which “native” white Britons are granted rights and protection that are denied to British Muslims citizens.

Written in the wake of April’s controversial Nationality and Borders Act bill, which made wide changes to the UK’s asylum system, the report, Citizenship: From Right to Privilege, says that the introduction of discriminatory citizenship laws is further indication that equality for Muslims has been deprioritised by the successive governments.

Proposals smuggled into the Nationality and Borders Act bill gave power to British officials to deprive a person of their citizenship while exempting the government from having to give notice if it is not “reasonably practicable” to do so.

Discriminatory citizenship laws have been justified by the UK Government on the grounds that only those whose actions pose grave threats to national security, or who have committed abhorrent crimes, will lose their citizenship. But the report’s author, IRR Vice-Chair Frances Webber, believes the powers affect far more people, effectively creating a second-class of largely minority ethnic Britons whose citizenship is disposable and contingent.

“Changes to citizenship law which have created these classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of south Asian and middle eastern heritage,” said Webber. “Such divisions act as a constant reminder to minority ethnic citizens that they must watch their step, and reinforce racist messages about ‘undeserving’ racialised groups unworthy of being British.”

Webber argued that 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.

READ: Does Britain’s sleepwalking into a racist two-tier citizenship system serve the UK’s interest?

“While a ‘native’ British citizen, who has access to no other citizenship, can commit the most heinous crimes without jeopardising his right to remain British, none of the estimated 6 million British citizens with access to another citizenship can feel confident in the perpetual nature of their citizenship,” Webber said.

The report found that prior to 2003, no deprivation of citizenship had been authorised for 30 years, but since then there have been at least 217, with 104 removals in 2017 after the collapse of Daesh. The report describes the criteria for deprivation of citizenship as “nebulous and undefined” and warns of a risk of its use for political purposes.

According to the report, the Home Office is not required to show objectively reasonable grounds to remove a person’s citizenship, nor does the person need to have been convicted of any offence, with many deprived despite having no criminal convictions. Citing the case of  Shamima Begum, who was stripped of her UK citizenship, the report argues that the ambiguous, undefined criteria for deprivation increases the likelihood of arbitrary and discriminatory decisions, and warns of the risk of abuse of the powers for political purposes.

“The recent revelation of how Begum was trafficked, and the collusion of the British authorities in the cover-up, suggests that risk is a reality,’ said Webber, warning about the ambiguous and undefined criteria used to strip citizenship. “It raises the question: was Begum’s citizenship removed to divert attention from Western agencies’ prioritisation of intelligence gathering over safeguarding vulnerable trafficked girls?”

Webber warns that the measures share the same rationale with the infamous Windrush scandal that came to light in 2018 and has a dark colonial legacy. The report evokes the British state’s treatment of its former colonial subjects in earlier times. Apparently in 1968, 200,000 British passport holders, residents of Kenya, of Indian heritage, who had opted to retain UK and Colonies citizenship instead of becoming Kenyan citizens on independence, were suddenly deprived of their right to enter their country of nationality on racial grounds.