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Waving Citizenship Fees for Children

What: Waving Citizenship Fees for Children
Where: House of Commons, Committee Room 5, Houses of Parliament, London SW1A 0AA
When: Monday, 17 June 2019, 18:00-20:00

Join the International Observatory of Human Rights in parliament during Refugee Week for an interesting panel discussion and the launch of IOHR’s campaign calling on the government to waive citizenship fees for children.

For many children who grow up in the UK, the pathway to citizenship can take several years and fees have spiralled out of control. The cost of a citizenship application – at £1,012 – is 20 times the amount it costs for a child to be registered as a citizen in Germany and 21 times what it costs in France, while the estimated cost of processing such applications is only £372.

These fees have been found to have severe negative impacts such as driving parents into overwork, debt and skipping meals to save for the costs. But without citizenship, children’s access to education is restricted and they are ineligible for student loans as well as may be subjected to foreign student university fees.

Tens of thousands of families are facing unaffordable costs, which is why IOHR is asking the government to end the practice of profiteering from citizenship applications.

Panellists will include Member of Parliament Lloyd Russell-Moyle; Valerie Peay, Director of IOHR; Nour Sakr, human rights lawyer and activist; Jimmy Pickering, Widening Participation Manager (Post-16) at King’s College London and Trustee for CitizensUK as well as testimonials from families affected by the outrageous citizenship fees. More speakers are to be confirmed.