“It is hard to watch our friends with young children travel and visit family and friends in other countries when we know we can’t”
BY DIVA STAFF, IMAGE BY UNSPLASH
The Guardian has discovered that children born outside of the UK to British-EU same-sex parents are being left stateless by the Home Office. Same-sex parents have been told by the department that children born abroad to a British parent (who was also born outside of the country) are ineligible for citizenship.
Some EU countries do not recognise same-sex partnerships and have denied children’s citizenship on this basis. This has left many same-sex parents in a position where they have not been able to leave the country where their child was born because they cannot get a passport or other forms of identification for them.
The Guardian uncovered the cast of a three-year-old girl, Sara, born in Spain to a British and Bulgarian mother. Sara’s British mother, Jane, was born in Gibraltar but moved to the UK when she was two weeks old, and as such cannot pass her British citizenship on to her daughter.
The UK Home Office has refused to issue Sara with a passport. However, she also struggled with acquiring Bulgarian citizenship – this is due to the country not recognising same-sex parents. Jane told The Guardian: “It is hard to watch our friends with young children travel and visit family and friends in other countries when we know we can’t.
“We have relatives who are elderly who have not yet met Sara – and we fear that, if we aren’t able to travel with her soon, they never will. The thought of that is so heartbreaking.”
Earlier this month, the European Commission put forward a proposal that stated that parenthood established in any EU member state should be recognised by all other EU nations. Since the UK has left the EU, families where one parent has British citizenship will not be affected.
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