Received from: Accord
Merged into composite 06
Congress notes:
i. The Home Office administrative hurdles placed in the way of the Windrush generation to have their British citizenship recognised cause hardship, deprivation, denial of public and health services and their right to work and, in some cases, lead to deportation.
ii. That 120,000 children, many born in the UK, including children who are stateless, are required to register their entitlement to British citizenship, which is their right.
iii. That to access their citizenship right, children, their parents or guardians are required to pay an exorbitant and prohibitively high registration fee of £1,012, of which £372 is said to constitute the cost of administration and £640 is profit to the Home Office.
iv. That for those children who are in local authority care, such a fee constitutes a direct transfer of funds from hard-pressed local authorities to the Home Office.
Congress applauds, and resolves to support, the campaign by Amnesty International UK to:
a. remove any element of the registration fee over and above the actual cost of administration
b. exempt the entire fee in the case of children in local authority care c. introduce a waiver of the fee in the case of any child who is unable to afford the
administrative cost of registration
d. improve awareness so that children exercise their rights to registration before a host of deplorable Windrush-type barriers and additional costs impact them when they reach 18 years of age.
Accord