On 5 December I read an article in the New Statesman that said six million people could be eligible to have their British citizenship removed without warning under the government’s forthcoming Nationality and Borders Bill. I was horrified as the implications dawned on me.
According to the article, two in five people in England and Wales from an ethnic minority background would be potential targets, under a rule change quietly added to the bill last month. The power to strip citizenship from dual citizens and people born overseas if the home secretary considers them a threat “to the vital interests of the United Kingdom” already exists – but this new law will allow the government to do it without telling them first.
The numbers in the article sounded damning at every turn. This would mean half of British Asians and 39% of Black Britons could potentially be deprived of their citizenship rights without warning, perhaps leading to them being deported. Did that include me, I wondered. Does that include my brothers and sisters? Why hadn’t I heard about the Nationality and Borders Bill until now? I had questions.
