secret.simon wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 2:21 pm
I think this matter is being approached in an incorrect manner.
Naturalisation and the grant of citizenship is generally the one aspect of international law that is seen as the exclusive preserve of the nation-state, because it involves becoming a member of the body-politic of that nation.
I think therefore that even the UNHCR and Amnesty International will be wary of intervening in such matters. At the end of the day, keep in mind that the refugees will have already received ILR, the right to reside permanently in the UK and where they would have stayed for the past few years in safety.
Also, I'm sure the Home Office will have likely noticed that one of the first actions most refugees do on getting British citizenship is to leave the UK and generally visit the country that they have sought refuge/asylum from. That casts a doubt as to the motive for the former refugee, both as to whether they had lied in the past about their refugee status and as to their future intentions, because, as mentioned above, they can already reside in the UK just fine without citizenship.
Indeed, most people resident in the UK on ILR already have most of the privileges of citizenship, including British citizenship by birth for any children born in the UK. It is not impossible that the Home Office therefore looks into naturalisation applications by former refugees more closely.
I think a much more productive way to approach this matter is to raise an FoI request to the Home Office requesting details of what checks are carried out for naturalisation applications for all applicants and a second FoI request (preferably by somebody else, after a gap of time) requesting the same details for former refugee applicants.
As an aside, as this thread specifically focusses on the question of delay in former refugee naturalisation applications, the other thread, which was meant to be a general discussion but which seems to have been overtaken for use on a specific topic, will now be locked.