The idea
Currently, only British mothers and married British fathers are able to pass on their citizenship, by descent, to their children. The one and only group left out of their birthright are children born before 1 July 2006 to unmarried British fathers.
There is a registration system put in place for fathers to register their minor children for UK citizenship. However, it is being misused by immigration officers. There are numerous news stories about children shut out of British citizenship because an immigration officer refused to register an illegitimate child's birth. Once that child reaches the age of 18, they are exempt from the opportunity to acquire British citizenship.
No other group of children have a cut-off date attached to their births for nationality purposes. Only illegitimate children have such unfair rules applied to them by the British government. Every other child born to at least one British parent can apply for citizenship at any time in their life.
Both the Nationality, Immigration, & Asylum Act and the Borders, Citizenship, & Immigration Bill sought to remove this inequality completely. However, each time it was removed, continuing to shut out children born to unmarried British fathers, while giving British mothers the right to pass on their nationality to their children, regardless of birth status. It was last year, during the Borders Bill, when the then Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, stated that giving illegitimate children any rights would be a "step into the unknown". Another MP told a "who's your daddy" joke.
This behavior towards illegitimate children is unacceptable and goes against both the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights. The British government must find a way to offer some path to citizenship for the very last group it has admitted to discriminating against — illegitimate children born before 1 July 2006 to British fathers.
This is clearly a human rights issue. Only one group of children are being singled out of their nationality rights. Remove ALL cut-off dates so that ALL children born to at least one British parent can register their births and acquire British passports, not just specific groups.
Why is it important?
It is illegal under the Human Rights Act to discriminate on the basis of age and sex. In this instance there are two victims of inequality – children born out of wedlock before 1 July 2006 and unmarried British fathers.
This inequality tears families apart. In some households, some children have British citizenship and some do not. If a child were born today to an unmarried British father, they would have the right to British citizenship, but a sibling in the same household who was born before 1 July 2006 would not. Many chlidren born before 2006 have fathers who went on to marry and have chldren with other women, conferring British citizenship on one set of children, whilst leaving their siblings who were born out of wedlock to a different mother, shut out.
It's also important because for so long, unmarried fathers have faced uninformed or unscrupulous immigration officers who wrongfully denied them the chance to register their child's birth.
Why isn't a legitimate claim to British citizenship by descent, automatic for all children of a British parent? Why is there such an unjust tier system in British nationality law?
It is time to put an end to this blatant and unjustified discrimination!
As a victim of this entirely unnecessary form of discrimination, I can attest that it has caused me unremitting pain all my life, and if I were to be granted my birthright at long last, I could finally experience life without the pain of being denied my identity and stigmatised as inherently inferior to my father’s other children. I must also specify that my father was in fact denied the right to register me – several times – when I was a minor.
I have 2 sons who are unable to get British Citizenship as they were born overseas and out of wedlock… Is there an active lobby group i can join , raise petitions, lobby MP’s etc. The law is “Out of Order” let’s get this sorted..now!
David
I fall into this category of being born before 01 July 2006 to a British father out of wedlock but what saddens me the most is that in 2004 a British passport was issued to me which I traveled with until 2006 when i went to my birth country in west Africa to get married and bring my wife over that an ECO confisticated my British passport on the grounds it was issued in error.
Since then life has been unbearable as all my plans have been cut short.
Any idea where to turn to and what to do??
I am a victim of this unfair & unjust law. I was born to an American mother and my father, a UK citizen of Montserrat, Antigua & London. They did not marry. I am not able to claim my UK citizenship by descent. This is so very wrong. By continuing to allow this law to remain, you are punishing innocent children who had no say. I implore the UK government and various pressure groups to address this and get the law changed now! Otherwise they are guilty of hypocrisy professing to be a country promoting an equality agenda.
I’m all for supporting this! Is there an official petition to bring this to the attention of parliament? Anyone written their MP? Is there an opposition MP who would be particularly capable of using this issue as a stick to beat the current government with? If so who is that MP and do we know anyone in that constituency? How about mounting a challenge in the courts? I know that in the UK the parliament has total sovereignty, meaning that it can ignore any court ruling if it so wishes, but a ruling by a high court either in Brussels or in Westminster would surely be politically quite difficult to disregard out of hand . . . . I’m not currently in the UK but am more than willing to help support motion in any way that I can.
I’m a mother to be, my boyfriend is a British national and we work in the same company. Since he heard the news that I was pregnant, he was upset about it and wanting to make an abortion. Abortion in my country is illegal and immortal sin as I really don’t know how could I ever get through with this. Is there any law about the rights of illegitimate child abroad besides having their fathers citizenship? Can we get any support and further more rights about illegitimate children?
i totally understand your pains as im in the same situation.my boyfrend broke up with me without a word with an xcuse that he cant afford to take care of me or our baby and i also objected to abortion as this isnt something i wanna do.im now lost depressed and confused and there is no way i can go back to africa with a baby without a dad.what am i hoing to evn tell my family as im totally neing disowned.get ontouch ok?
As far as British Law concerns if children are illegitimate they take their mother’s nationality whether British or foreign. In Britain illegitmate children have no automatic rights to their father’s estate or nationality so therefore Britain would not grant that nationality status to a foreign national bearing the illegitimate child of a male British National.
Even if the father agrees to being named on the birth certificate if the parents aren’t married the child is illegitimate.
I aint going to change anytime soon so get used to it.
im in the same boat i was born here never left ive been told so many things to do still no passport im 28 and my parents did not marry but i know my father my two older sisters have a British passport and the rest of us 5 siblings dont so no family holidays no school trips unless we pay 631 each my nan died and i couldnt go ive been told to do a dna by passport office then to be told no waste of money ive had bad depression as ive watched people leave me behind now im trying to find the first 5 years of my life which is proving to be hard from 5 i have before then no joy as paper system just feels like theres no justice for us
I wonder why its not okay to stay and use the mother’s nationality why is it imperative to get British Nationality! By the way UK nationality/citizenship doesn’t exist its British for those that seem to want to seek it perhaps you need to work out what it is first before you try to get it.
Sammy,
The problem is not only the British Nationality. We’re not opportunists trying to take advantage. The term “illegitimate” child is discriminating. So what, is my sister more daughter than I am? Am I inferior? Everyone have a father and a mother, but because my parents were not married Britain denies him from the right of registering me as his daughter. The birth certificate issued on my country recognizes him as my father, but if I go to UK I will not be recognized the same way. This is humiliating. I really don’t care for passports, I just wanted this stigma to end.
I agree with every word Ants said. I am also an “illegitimate” child and when I was a minor my father tried to register me several times, all of them were denied. My sister, however, was able to be registered. I would like to raise another point that I haven’t seen anyone talking about: this discriminating law opens breach to british men not carry out their duties related to the child, since many of them don’t consider he/she their childs. Nevertheless, in my country (Brazil) all children are treated the same way no matter if the father is married or not to the mother, and if he doesn’t carry out his legal and financial obligations to the child, he goes to jail. I know a few fathers in this situation who had to turn themselves to lawyers so they could be free. I hope Bristish Government is aware of what kind of behaviour this law encourages.
The law does discriminate, no doubt. But politics and consequential legislation is rarley about fairness. But the UK law does allow for registration of illegitimate children of a British father, quote (GUIDE MN1 REGISTRATION AS A BRITISH CITIZEN – A GUIDE ABOUT THE REGISTRATION OF CHILDREN UNDER 18) :
“We may normally register the illegitimate minor child, born before 1 July 2006, of a British
citizen father under section 3 (1) if the criteria at a-c. (and, if appropriate, d.) below are all
satisfied:
a. We are satisfied about the paternity of the child; and
b. We have the consent of all those with parental responsibility; and
c. If the child had been born to the father legitimately:
i. the child would have had an automatic claim to British citizenship; or
ii. the child would have had an entitlement to registration under either section
1 (3), section 3 (2) or sections 3 (5); or
iii. we would normally have registered under 3 (1). And, if appropriate
d. There is no reason to refuse on character grounds
my daughther was born feb 1, 2006.. just few months before july 1, 2006. is there any considerations to this..
my husbands son born in belize was just refused a passport as his mom and dad was not married he was born before 2006 but my step son has his fathers name on his birth paper and has the same name only jr added to it i mean why give a child the same name as you if its not your child and sign the birth certifficate.when my step son told me why they refused him i said NO way they cant say that its discrimination but looking on line i found out they can its so wrong all he wants to do is spend time with us in england be with his dad and half brother and sister.and to top it of they charged us a lot of money to insult us.
I am not happy with this law: my daughter born in 2004 does not get a British nationality whereas my son born in 2008 does. Their father is British but we are not married.