British 'national' faces deportation due to conflict of citizenship

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Created on Friday, 07 September 2012 13:44

Written by Editorial staff

A former Australian academic living in the United Kingdom told the BBC he is fearful that he may be deported due to a technicality in his status regarding where he was born.

Professor John Tulloch was born in India before the nation achieved independence - but despite this, he is not a citizen of the British realm. He is technically a 'British subject without citizenship'.

Living in Wales, the professor is looking to be granted a British passport, after it was originally confiscated in the 1990s when undertook a citizenship application process and was approved.

Injured in the 2005 London bombings, Professor Tulloch says that with his family roots and his lifetime connection with the UK, he is dumbfounded by this crackdown by the UK Border Agency.

"My wife has a British passport, my sons both have British passports, and my brother - who was born in India - has a full British passport but not me.

"My family goes back in Britain to [the year] 1200 or something. It's been traced, so what do you do?" he asks.

Tulloch survived the 2005 bombings in London where four suicide bombers detonated devices around the city, killing 52 people and injuring over 700.

He was physically scarred by the attack and now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Tulloch lived and worked in Australia in the 1980s and subsequently applied for citizenship. He was unaware, however that upon gaining Australian citizenship, his British nationality was cancelled.

In a statement to the BBC, the UK Border Agency said:

"If you are a British subject otherwise than by connection with the Republic of Ireland or a British protected person you will lose that status on acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.

"It is the responsibility of an individual to check that they will not lose a previously acquired nationality or citizenship on acquiring an additional one."

It comes as the UKBA looks to expel some students from the UK who are on a visa to study at university but were in actual fact working.

It's estimated that up to 50,000 economic refugees are in the UK under false pretences of studying but are really earning and living in the UK.

Australia's immigration department has been working to remove illegal immigrants, with Fairfax reporting that an average of 11 people per week in Victoria are being arrested for not having the proper documentation. Most people who have been caught overstayed their visa and continued to work, mostly in the agricultural industry.