The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) in the United Kingdom have slammed Home Minister Theresa May for her plans to introduce new measures that would enable the UK to strip anyone considered to be a threat to the country of their citizenship.
The measures, which could potentially leave those who have their citizenship taken away stateless, was condemned as being ‘wholly draconian’ and ‘a violation of human rights’ that must be opposed.
Fearing that the measures could make citizenship a privilage rather than a right, MPAC encouraged British Muslims to write to their MPs to challenge the move.
MPAC said: ‘The persistent trend, year after year, our governments has sought out new means to conceal prosecutions from the public, prevent open scrutiny, critic and accountability of those decision and those who make them.’
Referring to the case of Hilal al-Jedda, an Iraqi-born man who had his citizenship stripped despite receiving a ruling from the Supreme Court saying that it was illegal to make him stateless, MPAC said the new bill would enable the Home Minister act above the rule of the land.
MPAC also claimed that the bill would be directly contradictory to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that ‘everyone has the right to a nationality’ and ‘no-one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality’.
‘There is no open justice and due accountability in this bill due to the secret and stealthy nature of the powers. It politicises our fundamental civil rights underpinned by citizenship, creating a second class citizenship system in the UK,’ the statement read.