Solange Valdez-Symonds, from the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens, has called on the UK government to raise public awareness of children's citizenship registration. Her comments follow a US supreme court ruling that upheld birthright citizenship, which she says highlights the UK's different approach.
UK replaced birthright citizenship in 1983
The UK replaced birthright citizenship on 1 January 1983, meaning children born in the UK after that date do not automatically become citizens at birth. The British Nationality Act 1981, passed after extensive parliamentary debate, provides every child born in the UK with the right to citizenship no later than their 10th birthday if the UK remains their home.
Many children's citizenship rights remain unregistered
While some children become citizens at birth, others must have their citizenship formally registered. Valdez-Symonds notes that her project sees several people in their 30s and 40s without British citizenship who have always lived in the UK, and many more children whose citizenship rights remain to be registered. She describes the alienation of people whose childhoods pass with no one acting to secure their citizenship as palpable, and urges the government to stop treating these people as having no right to be here.
