The United Kingdom government has changed the immigration procedure to prevent persons who entered the nation illegally from becoming citizens. The measure most certainly violates international refugee conventions to which the United Kingdom is a signatory.
The change was made into the guidance for immigration caseworkers rather than through parliamentary legislation. Changes to guidelines are frequently easier than enacting legislation because they are usually left to the discretion of the government in power.
A similar revision to modern slavery and trafficking guidance in 2024 required victims of modern slavery to present more evidence up front, effectively blocking many from receiving protection. This citizenship advisory 'clarification' appears to be intended to replace a legal ban enacted in the contentious and now-repealed Illegal Migration Act.
The important immigration policy website Free Movement first reported on the change in citizenship rules. According to Sonia Lenegan, the government has introduced arriving in the United Kingdom without prior authorisation (as practically all asylum seekers and irregular migrants do) as a strike against a citizenship applicant's 'good character'.
The modification applies to anybody applying on or after February 10th, 2025, regardless of whether the unauthorised entry happened before the guidance changed.
Since taking power in July 2024, the United Kingdom's Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has unveiled a slew of tougher regulations aimed at discouraging people from attempting to enter the country in search of shelter, as well as a new border patrolling system in the English Channel.
Starmer also lauded Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's efforts to prevent illegal migrants from reaching European shores. Despite winning a historic victory in 2024, the Labour Party has soon lost electoral ground to the expressly anti-migration Reform Party, who appear to assume that stricter policies on illegal migration will prevent future voter attrition.
As has become commonplace in the United Kingdom in recent years, this new alteration to the immigration system to discourage further arrivals is most certainly in direct violation of the country's international humanitarian and human rights commitments.
The United Nations Refugee Convention, to which the United Kingdom is a member, prohibits punishing someone for their mode of entry into a nation if they intend to seek asylum or humanitarian protection. In this situation, the denial of a path to citizenship may clearly be interpreted as punishment.
According to various groups, including the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, this change in guidelines could prevent tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people from becoming citizens, regardless of how long they have lived in the UK or how exemplary their behaviour has been. As Sonia Lenegan of Free Movement points out, it is also likely to discourage people from applying at all, given the process is costly and, unlike other aspects of the immigration system, there is no right to appeal a refusal.
