UK citizenship
Sir: For some weeks now I have been reading the heated debates in your paper concerning the pros and cons of immigration. What a pity it is that there cannot be an equally heated debate about the rights of British citizens, born in Britain of British Parents, who, simply because they do not reside in the UK, are not by law allowed to Pass on their nationality to their spouses or their. children. Particularly when one reads that Asian immigrants settling in Britain are even allowed to summon their fiances/fiancees to join them, and that a child born in the UK, be his parents Russian, Chinese, or any nationality you can name, is automatically granted British citizenship. Yet it is a fact that there are thousands Upon thousands of British subjects living abroad who are not allowed to pass on their British citizenship to their children, these children having to take the nationality of the country where they are born regardless of the nationality of this parent. It is also a fact that, should these British citizens desire to return to the UK with their spouses, the latter are by law required to reside five Years in the UK before they become eligible to apply for UK citizenship. Although the National Council for Civil Liberties has been campaigning for some time to get these laws changed, to date nothing concrete has been done.
Who are these British citizens who are so discriminated against? They are British Women. A British man automatically Passes on his nationality to his children no matter where they are born, and his nonBritish wife can immediately apply to be registered as a UK citizen.
Rosalind Oliver-Borelli Via Amedeo Crivelluccl 19,
00179 Roma,
Italy
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