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• Liberal Democrat Conference Fringe Event: The true cost of citizenship

Liberal Democrat Conference Fringe Event: The true cost of citizenship

Date: 17 September 2019

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Place: The Durley Suite, Bournemouth International Centre, Exeter Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5BH

Speakers:
Kevin Maguie, Associate Editor of the Daily Mirror
Valerie Peay, Director of IOHR
Tom Brake MP
Erlisa Dajci, Testimonial
More TBC

NOTE: ATTENDANCE OF THIS EVENT REQUIRES A CONFERENCE PASS

Join the International Observatory of Human Rights for a lunchtime panel session where we will be looking at, and making recommendations for, citizenship policies in the UK.

We will be making a suggestion that the cost of citizenship applications for children should be waived and make the case that any future Lib Dem manifesto must include a pledge to waive the fees charged for children to apply for citizenship.

The UK citizenship application fee for children currently stands at £1,012 – a 51% increase since 2014. It is 20 times the amount it costs for a child to be registered as a citizen in Germany and five times the European average.

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. Meanwhile, the Home Office makes a profit of £640 on the application of each child who registers as British, which means an estimated £100m in profit from children registering as British citizens over the last five years.

Join us in exploring the political motivations underlying our current citizenship policies and what can be done to make the system equitable going forwards.

Lunch will be provided.

About IOHR

We are an independent NGO based in London and through IOHR TV – the first human rights TV channel – our team of journalists, researchers and multimedia professionals champion several advocacy programmes spanning from Statelessness to Freedom of Expression and Arbitrary