Jihadist stripped from British citizenship

Bl4ckGryph0n

British jihadists stripped of citizenship and banned from returning to the UK | Metro News

I quite like this and hope they'll apply this much more rigorously across the board where possible.

Oh and before some lefty liberal starts frothing at the mouth and doesn't read the article; yes this can only be utilised where the government has confirmed dual nationality. It is illegal to leave anyone stateless.

Jezza99

On the surface, a rare piece of common sense. However, I can guarantee that there will be appeals to the ECHR, probably on the grounds that their "right to family life" has been interfered with.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Most likely....

The Netherlands are doing this for all its Citizens - if you are out of the Netherlands for longer than 10 years and haven't kept up to date and have dual nationality than you'll loose it. Under the banner you clearly made your choice...

Jezza99

Yeah but that would be far too sensible a policy for the UK Supreme Court to stomach. Taking passports away from Jihadis would get them choking on their organic granola.

Toko Black

Not sure I qualify as a full on lefty liberal, but here's my take on it:

1) Dual citizenship nationals who go and fight for UK recognised terrorist* groups and organisations ie the likes of ISIS etc - GOOD

2) I would add that even those without dual citizenship who are bonafide ISIS fighters should be turned around at our borders and not allowed into the country if at all possible.
Harder to deport them once they are actually in the country, but if they are still in customs send them back on the next return flight or better still stop them boarding a flight here in the first place. I know that is not always practical or easy to do, but where it is I agree it should be done because those people have proven themselves to be willing to take up arms and fight for values and ideas that are fundamentally and dangerously opposed to those at the core of our own society.

3) The only issue I have is that in the article it doesn't just stop at Jihadists, it goes on to say "and other criminals".
I am not particularly comfortable with being able to deport 'criminals' as it falls into a much less objective and clear area of posing a threat to our society and opens up the possibility of subjective and politically motivated deportation.
Firstly - what do they mean by criminal ? Does that mean anyone ever convicted of a criminal offence, only a proscribed list, only a proscribed list that is recent ?
Secondly - where does the conviction originate ? Does it only mean those convicted under British Law, or does it include convictions from any country, or a proscribed list of countries ?

I think most people would agree that the case of Abu Qatada is different from say that of a man who was convicted in an Nigerian court of being gay 30yrs ago.
Assuming common sense and fairness is not the same as having a cast iron guarantee that an ambiguous and subjective law won't be abused or misused at some point.
Therefore, I could not in good conscience support such a law (or clause in a law if that be the case) unless it was provided in a much less subjective and ambiguous form.



* to avoid the issue of having to recognise other countries lists of terrorist organisations which in some cases the UK may not agree with in principle but have to abide by due to some agreement or deal made on cooperation eg. we cooperated with the Algerians to combat Islamic extremists, but the Algerians added dissidents and political adversaries to their list of proscribed terrorists. That led to issues over the UK potentially having to deport political refugees back to Algeria to face potential torture and imprisonment simply because they supported secular democracy or values closer to our own than the Algerian government liked.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I share the sentiment, but as that would be illegal it isn't possible. It is really easy to stop them boarding a flight, but as British Citizens without dual nationality it is against the law to them them stateless.

Fair questions - don't disagree with those questions as reasonable checks and balances that need to be ensured.


In reality we deport against our own rules, not the Algerian rules. It may provide an insight to the initial targets, but for that next step there are the UK checks and balances.