The Tories’ ill-advised tightening of the immigration laws in 2014 has highlighted the crass insensitivity of Theresa May and Amber Rudd, as well as giving Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters another opportunity to tell the world that their man warned what would happen well before the stuff hit the fan. But what is not well-known is that this mess does not just mean problems for those born in the West Indies before 1972.
That would affect those aged over 45. But John Ingram is just 39. And he can’t get a passport because the Home Office will not accept his birth certificate as proof of identity. So he can’t prove, to their satisfaction, who he is. He has not yet been threatened with deportation, but give them time, and all that. In any case, where would he go?
Ingram “was born in Germany while his parents were serving in the RAF”, but “his birth certificate was rejected when he tried to get a passport for a trip to Spain … he was born in a British military hospital in 1979 where his parents were serving and only spent two months in Germany. He has lived in the UK ever since and has never held a passport”.
Why is there a problem? “The Home Office rejected his birth certificate as proof of identity as it was issued by the British Consulate … the Home Office had wanted a German birth certificate as proof of his identity. But as he was born in a British military hospital he said ‘it doesn't exist, because I am not German … They keep moving the goal posts, they keep saying whatever I give them is not good enough’”.
Sound familiar? While the BBC has reported that “Mr Ingram said he had contacted his MP and had complained to the Home Office about the way his case was being treated, which has since been escalated”, their report also notes “His story comes amid the Windrush scandal, where some immigrants who came to the UK from the Commonwealth decades ago have been threatened with deportation or refused jobs or healthcare”.
John Ingram - can't prove he's British. Yet
There must be scores more service families whose children have been born while they were serving in Germany - or, indeed, elsewhere. Likewise consular staff and their families. But our immigration laws are clearly so screwed that being born in a British military hospital that happens to be in Germany renders someone liable to be refused a passport because their papers don’t enable them to clear the Home Office’s high bar.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking down for John Ingram: “with the holiday approaching in June he says he is running out of time to get the situation resolved. ‘It cost us a lot of money and she [his partner] doesn't want to go unless we can all go together, but how do you prove you are British?,’ he said”. Meanwhile, Amber Rudd is still clinging on.
That’s what happens when you make policy at the behest of the Daily Mail. I’ll just leave that one there.
10 comments:
If this horror is to be resolved properly it will be necessary to identify the civil servants also responsible. That is, those blamed by Rudd and May and their hooray henries and henriettas.
There must be no hiding by anybody. No more squirming.
My wife was born in a RAF hospital in Germany in 1972 - she had no problem getting a passport and even sorting out a national insurance number only took a week or so... the difference here? She applied for all this before 2009 - this isn’t about the Home Office and Border Force being a bureaucratic messs - this is about a deliberate policy to make the targets in any way possible. Utterly disgraceful.
How on earth did he get into the RAF if they didn't think he was British or UK origin?
Are they in the habit of letting anyone into UK forces?
Seriously? What a joke.
My father born in Britain, is unable to get a passport as his surname was changed when he was about 2, over 60 years ago. The solicitors the family used no longer exists and apparantly paperwork was destroyed.
When he tried to get a passport they refused as his name on his birth certificate is different. With no way of getting hold of documents proving the change of name he can't get a passport.
There must be many others in a similar situation who have no passports and are unable to get them for various reasons. I've heard cases of people who were fosered having problems too.
If his parents served in the RAF then surely he's of British origin. There must be documentation.
Or are we into letting anyone into the RAF?
He wasn't in the RAF, his parents were
Maybot's Kipper voting chasing policies are coming home to roost right before the local elections...
The Tories are getting away with this scandal due to their pals in the right wing toilet papers and the BBC using the new royal baby as a handy deflection tool.
If this had happened under JC's Premiership the BBC would be going for the jugular.
Well Amber Rudd is the only a human shield protecting the Maybot from having to answer for her racist and inhumane polices designed to capture the Kipper vote.
Let's hope Maybot and her nasty party get a hammering in next week's local elections.
What is even more sickening is how tory after tory shows up only to vomit poison about "illegal immigration" on the backs of this racist muck. Which of course has nothing to do with the issue of citizens deprived of their de facto rights.
The tories - and New Labour, who "helped" - are at the roots of this institutional racism. Let's hope enough voters realise it when the time comes. It's the only way British society can begin to rid itself of this poison.
Anonymous 18:04, you've posted practically the same comment at that time and 18:10. Both comments reek of racism.
They aren't 'anyone' and they aren't 'a joke.' They are immigrants and hard workers who have been treated horribly. There is no need for such hostility and to make this out to be some 'scary scary immigrants' tale.
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