Man born and raised in UK told he is not a British citizen

[Matilda]

"A 21-year-old man who was born and raised in Britain has been told to leave the UK by the Home Office because he is not a British citizen.

'Shane Ridge, a joiner from Colne in Lancashire who describes himself as “as British as they come”, received a letter from the Home Office last week informing him that his driving licence would be revoked as he had “no lawful basis to be in the UK”.

"It came as a surprise because all of Ridge’s relatives are British citizens. His mother was born in Australia during a family holiday, but has lived in Britain since then and has dual citizenship.

"Under UK law, if a child was born before July 2006, the father’s British nationality will usually only automatically pass to the child if he was married to the mother at the time of birth. Because Ridge’s parents never married, he does not have an automatic right to citizenship and is required to apply for “right of abode”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/29/joiner-shane-ridge-born-and-raised-in-britain-told-to-leave-home-office


There are a number of similar cases we read about, but I'm struck by things such as cancelling his driver's licence, and suspending his bank account. Things like that seem to be deliberately spiteful, and I wonder just what they're trying to prove, not least because this young man has committed no criminal act, nor is he a "welfare bludger" - he's been working and living a very normal sort of life.

I lived in the UK in the late sixties and was there when they started tightening the rules against commonwealth citizens living in Britain. I did know a couple of people who were given a definite date to leave the UK, which carried penalties if they stayed on, but that date was always about six months in advance, not "get out now". I was never, ever made to feel unwelcome in England, and this attitude stuns me.

This isn't the Britain I knew and loved.

[Denzil_DC]

1. Home Office apologises for ordering man born in Britain to leave UK

The Home Office has apologised after a 21-year-old man who was born and raised in Britain was wrongly told to leave the UK because he was not a British citizen.

Shane Ridge, a joiner from Colne in Lancashire, received a letter from the Home Office last week informing him that his driving licence would be revoked as he had “no lawful basis to be in the UK” and that he faced a £5,000 fine or imprisonment if he didn’t leave within 10 working days.

...

After extensive media coverage, the Home Office on Wednesday said it had established that Ridge was “automatically a British citizen”.

A spokesperson added: “We have spoken with Mr Ridge to apologise for this error and the distress caused. When Mr Ridge applied for right of abode, we did not identify that his maternal grandmother was British and that as a result his mother had settled status in the UK at the time of his birth.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/30/home-office-apologises-for-wrongly-telling-british-man-shane-ridge-leave-uk

[Matilda]

2. We might wonder why the Home Office is not doing its job properly.

When you're issuing an order that will uproot a citizen from the country he's known all his life and tell him to get out and go somewhere else where he has no ties at all, you might just think the HO clerks would try to check their facts first.

Seems they're pandering to the nutjobs who've become totally xenophobic, and who, no doubt, voted happily for Brexit.

SAD!

[Denzil_DC]

3. There are so many stories like this at the moment, Matilda.

It's infuriating and heartbreaking.

[T_i_B]

4. MPs using immigration enforcement hotline to report people to the Home Office

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2017/09/01/mps-using-hotline-to-report-immigrants-to-home-office

Members of parliament have been using a Home Office hotline and webpage to report people for immigration enforcement, Politics.co.uk can reveal. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Home Office confirmed that it received 482 tip-offs from MPs between 2014 and 2016.

The news raises the possibility that MPs are reporting their own constituents to the authorities when they have come to them for help

The Green party today hit out at the practice calling it a "fundamental betrayal of trust" and called for the MPs involved to come clean about how they came about the information they reported.

"This appears to be a fundamental betrayal of trust and duty of care if elected representatives have been tipping off the Home Office about people they suspect to be undocumented migrants," party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said. "Members of parliament should support, defend and advocate for all those living in their local communities, not have them dragged away to indefinite detention and potential deportation. Serious questions must now be asked about how the Home Office's 'Big Brother' system is being used by MPs.