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| Britain | |
| 20 terror suspects have British passports torn up in security crackdown to stop them returning | |
| 2013-02-28 | |
| At least 20 terror suspects have had their British passports torn up on national security grounds to stop them entering the country, it emerged today. In the last two years alone Home Secretary Theresa May has stripped British citizenship from 16 individuals considered to pose a threat to the UK. Rules in place for a decade allow ministers to act to revoke passports in a bid to target the so-called 'enemy within'. The Home Office today defended the policy from claims it was equivalent to 'medieval exile', insisting the British citizenship was 'a privilege not a right'. Officials said that from 2002 to September last year 20 citizens were stripped of their passports. A report by the Bureaux for Investigative Journalism, published in The Independent today, suggested the number is 21, of which only two have successfully appealed. Two men involved - Bilal al-Berjawi, a British-Lebanese citizen, and British-born friend Mohamed Sakr, who also held Egyptian nationality -- travelled to Somalia in 2009. They are said to have become involved with Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qa'ida. Both rose to senior positions in the organisation. They were stripped of their British nationalities by Mrs May in 2010 and were killed in separate US airstrikes. Saghir Hussain, Sakr's former UK solicitor said: 'It appears that the process of deprivation of citizenship made it easier for the US to then designate Mr Sakr as an enemy combatant, to whom the UK owes no responsibility whatsoever.'
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| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Legally a passport is not OWNED by a person. Its the property of the government. Tearing it up doesnt "strip" ones nationality. Where you were born is where you were born. BUT it does make it a lot more inconvenient tomove around. |
| Posted by: Northern Cousin 2013-02-28 20:17 |
| #3 Anybody tearing up FAKE passports? (Don't say there are none) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-02-28 14:12 |
| #2 british born pakistanis and brit born somalians are the biggest threat to uk atm |
| Posted by: Snomomp Schwarzeneggar3438 2013-02-28 13:54 |
| #1 I know "torn up" is figurative, but I have this amusing image in my mind of a husky Beefeater or retired SAS man actually tearing up passports... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2013-02-28 10:07 |