Migrants who enter the UK illegally will ‘be refused British citizenship’

Migrants who arrive in the UK by boats and lorries will not be allowed to receive British citizenship, the Home Office states.

Immigration staff have been provided with “Good Character” guidance and those who arrived in the UK illegally “having made a dangerous journey… will normally be refused citizenship” from 10 February, not matter when they arrived.

The Home Office guidance states that a dangerous journey includes “but is not limited to, travelling by small boat or concealed in a vehicle or other conveyance.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy wrote on X the guidance “should be changed asap”.

“If we give someone refugee status, it can’t be right to then refuse them route to become a British citizen,” she wrote.

“To say they can have a home in our country, but never a place in our society and be forever second class.”

Sky News reported, the Refugee Council said “flies in the face of reason” and said the public want refugees “to integrate and contribute to their new communities, so it makes no sense for the government to erect more barriers”.

“We urge ministers to urgently reconsider,” Enver Solomon, CEO of the NGO said.

A Home Office spokesperson said, “There are already rules that can prevent those arriving illegally from gaining citizenship.

“This policy guidance further strengthens measures to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including small boat arrivals, faces having a British citizenship application refused.”