Skip to content

The Illegal Migration Act 2023: British Citizenship and Leave to Remain for Children in the UK 

A briefing for Parliamentarians
July 2024

Note: The Government introduced a regulation which applies from 24 July 2024, which puts the Illegal Migration Act on hold indefinitely. This means it will not apply at all.

KIND UK still strongly recommends that the Illegal Migration Act is repealed in its entirety. Without repeal, it is possible that the Government (or a future Government) could in future change its approach and apply part or all of the Illegal Migration Act. 

KIND UK Briefing_The Illegal Migration Act 2023 British Citizenship and Leave to Remain for Children in the UKDownload
  1. The Illegal Migration Act (‘IMA’ or ‘the Act’) became law on 20 July 2023. The key provision relating to removal (Section 2) is not yet in force. The provisions relating to British citizenship and leave to remain came into force immediately on 20 July 2023, and some other provisions are also currently in force.[1]
  2. The leave to remain and citizenship provisions have generally received less attention but have a profound long-term impact on the lives of many children in the UK. They permanently exclude those affected from any form of leave to remain in the UK and from some of the most common routes to British citizenship (unless an exception applies).[2] Many of those affected are children born in the UK and/or those who have never known any other country.
  3. Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK) assists children with immigration and citizenship matters on a pro bono basis. We partner with 27 corporate law firms to deliver free legal advice and representation. We assist approximately 700-1000 children each year, many of whom have grown up in the UK and only become aware they are not British citizens towards the end of school when issues of university and work arise.
  4. Pathways to secure immigration status and British citizenship previously available to such children under the Immigration Rules and British Nationality Act (BNA) 1981 have been shut down or significantly altered by the IMA, condemning a generation of children in the UK to a lifetime of instability and poverty.
  5. The leave to remain and citizenship provisions of the IMA brush aside the well-established and common-sense principles that children should not be punished or discriminated against based on the actions or status of their parents (Article 2, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child),[3] and that the best interests of the child should always be a primary consideration in decisions about them (Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 and Article 3, CRC).[4]
  6. Under the IMA provisions relating to leave to remain and citizenship, a baby or young child could be brought to the UK by a parent or carer and spend their entire childhood here, but be banned for life from any path to citizenship, based on the actions of their parent or carer. Consequently the child could grow up in Britain, but have no right to work or study in the only country they know when they reach adulthood.
  7. During Parliamentary debates before the passage of the IMA, Baroness Ludford raised concerns about people left in limbo by the Act, some of whom are “excluded from any path to settlement or citizenship—in other words, an outcast underclass.”[5]
  8. We urge all Parliamentarians to call for the repeal of the Illegal Migration Act and for the new Government to take immediate steps to ensure that its negative impact on the lives of children in the UK is minimised.

Download the full briefing here.

For more information, please contact Cynthia.orchard@centralenglandlc.org.uk.

This briefing was prepared for KIND UK by Cynthia Orchard (Consultant Policy Advisor) and Matthew Leidecker (Communications Consultant).

More detail on the leave to remain and citizenship provisions of the IMA is available here.

Notes

  1. Illegal Migration Act 2023 (IMA), section 68(3)(a). To see which sections of the Act are in force, go to https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/37/contents. 
  2. IMA, sections 6, 30. 
  3. See eg Written Evidence by the UK Committee for UNICEF (IMB0034), 6 April 2023; UNCRC, Article 2, https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/119953/html/; and UNHCR, UK Asylum and Policy and the Illegal Migration Act. We note that some provisions of the Bill changed before it was enacted; however, the Act still punishes or discriminates against some children due to their parents’ status or activities, and therefore, it is not compatible with the CRC. 
  4. UNCRC, Article 3(1); Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, section 55. 
  5. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-05-10/debates/36161ECC-6FAF-4CEC-9830-80C71BEB1272/IllegalMigrationBill