Natural Justice

[poliphilo]

I understand there have recently been changes in immigration law that strengthen the rights of children in asylum cases. Odi and Peter's lawyer will be using these to continue pressing their case with the Home Office.

Fabi greets us these days as "nanna" and "grandpa". The better he is bonded to us- and the society he is growing up in- the more compelling is the case that he should stay. When we saw him yesterday we were trying to teach him to say, "I am an English boy". He's getting very quick at picking up words. He didn't grasp the whole sentence- it is perhaps a little too abstract for him-  but he managed a garbled version of "English".

I think it's a travesty of natural justice that a child should be expelled from the country in which he/she was born. 

Comments

[ibid.livejournal.com]

If he was born here then doesn't that give him citizenship?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Sadly not. But there seems to be a case to be argued.

[jenny_evergreen]

It is, but, of course, if all one has to do is have a kid, controlled immigration would be pretty much a thing of the past. Not that I, personally, have a problem with that. I don't like this "stuck where you're born unless you can get the right education or the right amount of money" business AT ALL. For rather obvious reasons, of course!

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it all seems rather arbitrary, doesn't it?

[jenny_evergreen]

It's really pretty ridiculous when you think about it, imo.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think people should be able to live wherever they want. I recognise this is Utopian....

[jenny_evergreen]

Exactly.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Strange, I thought England was jus soli, like we are.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe the law has been altered recently.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I should think so. US law is deeply rooted in English law.

This has become a hot topic in certain circles, here in the US. Since Obama was elected president, many, many 'conservatives' in this country have maintained that, not only should he not have been elected, it was actually illegal for him to become president, since in their opinion he is not really a natural US citizen. The opinion splits into two camps of factually challenged lunatics: those that argue that Obama's claim of being born on US soil is fraudulent and those that essentially deny the 14th amendment, the one that abolished slavery and made native-born African Americans US citizens.

The punchline is that both camps claim, publicly at least, that their belief has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the president is black.

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

>> travesty of natural justice

Perhaps. I'd need to hear other facts, though. Did the parents enter the country legally, in the first instance? If one is going to invoke Natural Justice, once must come to her with clean hands.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They thought they had entered legally. They employed an agent who took their money, assured them everything was in order- then abandoned them in Liverpool, without papers or money...

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a sad tale. I'm betting, however, that English law does not provide for citizenship for the parents under such circumstances.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, they've already had their application turned down twice- so you're clearly right. What is at issue now is the rights of the children- and here- I rather think- European Law may come into play.