Muslims in the UK have had their citizenship reduced to 'second-class' status as a result of government powers to strip people of their nationality, a thinktank has says.

The report from the Institute of Race Relations has been published in the wake of the Nationality and Borders Act which allows citizenship to be removed without notice.

The background paper explains how both Labour and Conservative governments have given ministers successively wider powers to remove citizenship from those with access to another citizenship – who are mainly ethnic minorities – and how the targets are almost exclusively British Muslims of south Asian heritage.

The government claims that only those whose actions pose grave threats to national security, or who have committed abhorrent crimes, will lose their citizenship. 

The report’s author, IRR vice-chair Frances Webber believes the powers affect far more people, effectively creating a second-class of largely minority ethnic Britons whose citizenship is disposable and contingent:

‘Changes to citizenship law which have created these classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of south Asian and middle eastern heritage. Such divisions act as a constant reminder to minority ethnic citizens that they must watch their step, and reinforce racist messages about “undeserving” racialised groups unworthy of being British.’

The Home Office is not required to show objectively reasonable grounds to remove a person’s citizenship, nor does the person need to have been convicted of any offence, with many deprived despite having no criminal convictions. 

The report argues that the ambiguous, undefined criteria for deprivation increases the likelihood of arbitrary and discriminatory decisions, and warns of the risk of abuse of the powers for political purposes – an apt warning given the disclosure that Shamima Begum, whose citizenship was removed by then home secretary Sajid Javid in 2018, had been trafficked into Syria by a Canadian spy. 

‘The recent revelation of how Begum was trafficked, and the collusion of the British authorities in the cover-up, suggests that risk is a reality,’ said Webber. ‘It raises the question: was Begum’s citizenship removed to divert attention from Western agencies’ prioritisation of intelligence gathering over safeguarding vulnerable trafficked girls?’

The ability to challenge decisions has also been diminished, with the briefing highlighting the case of a British-born domestic abuse victim who lost her appeal against citizenship removal although she had been coerced by her husband into travelling to Syria.

Webber adds that the legislation is also a threat to racialised communities’ right to dissent or criticise the government, with Muslims turned into a ‘suspect community’.

The increased use of the powers, alongside other provisions affecting Muslim communities, including the controversial Prevent duty, has coincided with the government’s shift away from racial and religious equality protections, which new prime minister Liz Truss has described as ‘favouritism’.

Webber warns that the measures share the same rationale with the infamous Windrush scandal that came to light in 2018:

‘The ‘deportation logic’ on which the deprivation powers are based – get rid of them, regardless of family ties, or how long they have lived here– is the logic that deprived the Windrush generation of their livelihoods, their homes, in some cases their freedom and their country.’