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What's the BOTC Campaign all about?

Our campaign was founded in 2010 by Trent Lamont Miller, an actor, and his British partner, who lives in New York.

Trent's mother is American, and his father was born in the former British colony of Montserrat, now a British overseas territory. His parents never married.

In 2010, Trent sought recognition as a British and Overseas Territory citizen by descent through his father. His father, born in Montserrat, a former British colony, was a citizen of the United Kingdom and its Colonies (CUKC). He later became a citizen of the British Dependent Territories (BDTC) and, in 2002, a citizen of the British Overseas Territories (BOTC).

Before moving to the USA, his father lived and worked in the UK in the 1960s. At that time, Commonwealth citizens could do this without hindrance. This continued until the early 1970s when the UK government introduced strict immigration controls to manage the flow of immigrants.

In 2002, with the introduction of the British Overseas Territories Act, all citizens of British overseas dependent territories were granted full British citizenship rights, meaning the ability to live and work in mainland UK without restriction. They finally became part of the UK family.

When Trent researched the process of applying for citizenship by descent with the Home Office (the authority responsible for regulating British nationality law), he hit a roadblock.

He learned that:

Children born abroad, outside of marriage before 1 July 2006, to British (mainland) fathers could not inherit their fathers' British citizenship.
For children born abroad, outside of marriage before 1 July 2006, to British Overseas Territories, fathers could not inherit their British Overseas Territories and British citizenship.
Children born overseas to British Overseas Territories mothers (married and unmarried) before 1 January 1983 were denied the right to claim their mothers' citizenship.

These remaining pockets of discrimination impacted children of descent from all British Overseas Territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Overseas Territory ("BIOT"), British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland South Georgia Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Island, St. Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Trent and his partner, Dave, dedicated themselves to campaigning to remove this discrimination in British nationality law.

In 2011, they connected with another British nationality campaigner, Tabitha Sprague, who also lives in New York. As shown in the first bullet point above, Tabitha attempted to get the UK government to remove the discrimination against mainland UK fathers and their children. She was unaware that the same discrimination affected parents and children in British Overseas Territories. Consequently, they joined forces and collaborated. Key supporters inside the House of Lords, the late Lord Eric Avebury and Baroness Ruth Lister took up the fight to change the law.

In 2014, after much campaigning by Tabitha with Lord Avebury's and Baroness Lister's help, the Government chose to amend the law (section 65 Immigration Act 2014) to allow children born outside of marriage to only British mainland-born fathers.

The result: Tabitha and Trent, two children born under the same circumstances, with fathers born on British soil, would be treated unequally.

Despite Lord Avebury's efforts to include the British Overseas Territories, the Government did not extend these same rights to other categories of British citizenship. Consequently, nationality law remained unequal and unbalanced—a further political solution involving consultation between the Home Office and the governments of the British Overseas Territories needed to take place. The UK government promised to look for opportunities to do this, but they dragged their feet for over seven years.

Trent and Dave did not give up. They persisted in pushing, using social media, and writing letters to people in power. Their determination paid off. In 2019, the British Government published a policy paper and committed to a consultation to correct the remaining two pockets of discrimination in the next parliamentary session. They included additional legislation to help children who were discriminated against.

In 2020, the UK Government agreed to amend the law further to include them in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, remedying their discrimination. Their amendments (clauses 1, 2 & 4) can be found at this link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/contents/enacted

Later on, as their legislation was going through the final stages in the UK Parliament, they became aware of a significant group of children who were indigenous descendants of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents from the British Indian Overseas Territory (BIOT) that formed the Chagos Archipelago. They were being denied citizenship by descent. Trent and Dave offered to help various Chagossian campaign groups to get them included in their legislation. They played a crucial role in connecting people and sharing their campaigning experience, helping progress their inclusion in the legislation. They collaborated with independent advocates of Chagossian descent, Rosy Leveque and Jerome Simon, and groups like Chagossian Voices.

Both believed this was an excellent opportunity to have the Chagossian children of descent added to the Nationality and Borders Bill. The history of the British Indian Overseas Territory (BIOT) Chagos Islands is unfortunate. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it involved the forcible removal of their descendants from their islands to Mauritius and Seychelles to make way for a US military airbase. As a result, most of the children of descent lost their right to British nationality.

We are pleased to report that the Chagossian children of descent were added to clause #3 of the bill through their combined determined efforts.

So much good has come from this campaign. Trent, Dave, Tabitha, Rosy, and fellow Chagossian campaigners realize that many thousands of children's and adults' lives have been changed as they now have opportunities to expand their lives and finally belong. They no longer feel cast out and unheard.

You can find further information about the Chagossians at these links:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/36/section/3/enacted

https://www.facebook.com/chagossianvoices

Trent's Story

Trent Lamont Miller, Actor & Advocate

Important Update - June 2022:

After successful campaigning and advocacy, the Nationality & Borders Act 2022 has remedied the discrimination described below for people like Trent. Read on for further details.

An example of one of these children, now an adult, is American-born Actor/Advocate Trent Lamont Miller ('Silcott'). In 2010, he researched whether he could claim British and British Overseas Territories citizenship by descent through his father, Abraham. Trent's father was born in 1942 in the former British colony, now a British overseas territory called Montserrat. Trent's grandparents were also born on the British island.

In the 1960s, Trent's father lived and worked in London before temporarily moving to the USA to study. However, due to changes in law in the early 1970s, Trent's father found that he no longer enjoyed the right of abode in the UK and was forced to remain in the USA. Trent has half-siblings living in London and half-siblings living in the USA. Trent's connection to the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat and the mainland UK is strong and long-standing based on family connections.

Trent is 'shut out' from his right to claim British & and British Overseas Territory citizenship by descent via his father simply because Trent's father could not marry his American mother. However, his half-siblings living in the USA can claim that his father did marry their mother. The result is that family members are treated differently under British nationality law, which results in divided families. This situation is grossly unfair.

British nationality law is discriminatory & and divides families. The UK and Montserrat treat Trent as a visitor, not a person with the right to belong. It impacts his culture and identity; he feels denied and deprived through no fault of his own.

This issue of denying British & and British-overseas-territories citizenship by descent came to the public spotlight in 2009 after a campaign by Tabitha Sprague of a group called U.K. Citizenship Equality Campaign. In 2014, she got the British Nationality Act 1981 amended to allow illegitimate children, now adults, born to U.K. mainland fathers ONLY to have a retrospective right to register for citizenship. In Tabitha's case, her father was a British mainland-born, and her mother was an American.

The late Lord Eric Avebury and former British M.P. Julian Huppert helped change the British Nationality Act 1981 ('BNA') through Section 65 of the Immigration Act of 2014 as it passed through the House of Lords. Amendments made provided for the first time the ability for people like Tabitha to register their births retrospectively and then apply for British nationality and citizenship by descent based on her unmarried father.

However, there was one significant omission. These amendments did not include all the "just as British & deserving" illegitimately born children of British Overseas Territories born fathers, like Trent. The excuse was given by the British government's Home Office Minister at the time, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, during the final stages of the debate to Human Rights Peer Advocate the late Lord Eric Avebury:

"I know that my noble friend is also concerned about British Overseas Territories citizens. Changes to those provisions require consultation with the territories concerned, which has not been possible in the time available. However, I assure my noble friend that the government will look for suitable opportunities to discuss this issue with the overseas territories once the provisions are implemented."

(Hansard 6 May 2014: Column 1416)

We have an unequal position in British nationality law. Had we been included in the amendments, the law would have been fairer for ALL children born out of wedlock. However, our failure to be included treats us as "less than" regarding our rights to inherit our father's citizenship.

During our campaign, we also learned that children born abroad to British Overseas Territories Mothers before 1 January 1983 are also denied a route to claim their unmarried mothers' British and British Overseas Territories citizenship by descent.

It depends on your birth year, where you are born, and whether your parents are married or not, which dictates whether you qualify. Here are examples of when the same categories of children qualify, which makes the law unequal:

Discrimination does not apply if your child is born after 1 July 2006. The parent’s marital status is irrelevant.
Discrimination does not apply if your child is born abroad to a British Overseas Territories Citizen Mother after 1 January 1983

British nationality law, which dictates the treatment of British Overseas Territories children of descent, needs to be urgently amended to make it fair to all children born out of wedlock.

It's been six long years since Lord Taylor's statement to the now-late Lord Eric Avebury. Baroness Ruth Lister of Burtersett has taken over the campaign. She tirelessly advocates for and pressures the Home Office to introduce primary legislation to fix this unequal situation.

We understand that consultation has occurred between the Home Office and respective British Overseas Territories governments. The issue is now subject to an informal engagement process with crucial nationality stakeholders in the U.K. legal world. The British government has been slow to bring forth a bill. There is no reason to delay this. The urgent need for action has been raised in many written questions to the Home Office and discussed in two parliamentary reports:

1. Joint Committee on Human Rights, chaired by Harriet Harman QC MP

2. Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Tom Tugendhat, MP

We are tired of being treated as "less-than" & and made to feel like "strangers & and visitors to our fathers' homelands." The lack of official recognition prevents us from fully assimilating into our fathers' rich cultural roots. We demand a right to 'official recognition and acknowledgment' to have a complete family life.

Key points to remember:

We have every right to have our father's and mother's British citizenship by descent
Our campaign is all about “Reuniting Families."
No illegitimate child should ever be made to be less than and cast out
For us, 'British Fair Play’ came through
We all have a right to live in a fairer and equal world

Good News - Here is what has been achieved:

We have successfully campaigned to convince the UK Government to make legislative changes that provide a retrospective right to register the births of children, now adults, under the following categories:

1. Illegitimate Children born before 1 July 2006 to British Overseas Territories fathers

Children born to unmarried British fathers could acquire British nationality through their father only after 1 July 2006. Registration provisions were introduced for people born to unmarried British citizen fathers before 1 July 2006 to be registered as citizens by section 65 of the Immigration Act 2014. These provisions allow a person to register as a British citizen if they have acquired that status automatically under the British Nationality Act 1981 had their father been married to their mother. However, the same category of illegitimate children born to British Overseas Territories fathers did not receive the same consideration and was intentionally left out of that legislation.

Section 65 was introduced at a very late stage in the Bill debates: it was recognized that each overseas territory has its immigration law, and to create a route for people to become British Overseas Territories citizens (which could give a right of abode in a territory) would require more comprehensive consultation with governors and territory governments, which was not possible before the introduction of that Act. Corresponding provisions were therefore not extended to include citizens from British Overseas Territories who were deliberately left out!

After successfully campaigning, the Home Office introduced legislation through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, creating the BOTC (F) Route to remedy the continued discrimination. Thereby placing BOTC & BC citizens on an equal footing. Effective 28 June 2022

2. Children born before 1 January 1983 to British Overseas Territories mothers

Before 1 January 1983, women could not pass on British nationality to a child born outside the U.K. and Colonies. Provisions to allow for children born before 1983 to British citizen mothers to be registered as British citizens were introduced in the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act 2002 but were not extended to British Overseas Territories mothers. This was because the registration provision was introduced to extend the concession announced in 1979 to register U.K.-born mothers' children only. The aim in 2002 was to cover those who could have been registered as children based on that concession but had not applied in time. The criteria introduced - that the person would (if women could have passed on citizenship at that time) have become a citizen of the U.K. and Colonies and acquired a right of abode in the U.K. - aimed to cover those who had a maternal connection with the U.K. The registration criteria were extended in legislation in 2009. As this was introduced as an unexpected Lord's amendment, there was no time to consult with BOT governments about the implications of doing something for BOTCs, which could impact territory migration. Therefore, there is no route to register for British & British Overseas Territories citizenship.

After successfully campaigning, the Home Office introduced legislation through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, creating the BOTC (M) Route to remedy the continued discrimination. Thereby placing BOTC & BC citizens on an equal footing. Effective 28 June 2022

3. British Overseas Territories Act 2002 - Impact on children of descent

When the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 came into force, anyone who was a BOTC on 21 May 2002 automatically became a full British citizen. Equally, it allowed British citizenship to be acquired through birth in an overseas territory or to a relevant parent from an overseas territory. This means that people in the above groups should have gained BOTC and British citizenship. Therefore, the only way to fix this is to make further inclusive amendments to the British Nationality Act 1981 to provide a retrospective route to register births for nationality purposes. It will allow disenfranchised children, now adults, of British Overseas Territories descent, to become British and British Overseas Territories citizens.

4. Chagossian Children of Descent (British Indian Overseas Territory "BIOT."

British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC) is a form of British nationality held through a close and continuing connection with a British Overseas Territory. The vast majority of people who hold BOTC also hold British citizenship.

Chagossians are the former residents of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) who were removed from the islands that form BIOT between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, and their descendants were born outside the BIOT. The removal of Chagossians from BIOT has meant that British nationality could not be passed on to the second and subsequent generations of Chagossians born outside the UK and territories. This is because it is a long-standing principle of British nationality law that nationality can only be passed on to the first generation born outside the UK territory, reflecting that British nationals should have a close and continuing connection to the UK or a British Overseas Territory.

On 21 May 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 automatically made all those who held British nationality through a close and continuing connection to a British Overseas Territory citizens.

Due to cross-party cooperation and campaigning advocacy, the Home Office, at the last minute, agreed to add to the Nationality and Borders Bill 2022 to allow people who are directly descended from someone who was born on the islands that now make up the British Indian Ocean Territory, to apply for registration to acquire British nationality. Applications can be made from 23 November 2022. This benefited Chagossians of descent worldwide. However, most applicants live in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the UK. It is a time-limited exception of five years, effective from 23 November 2022, for people over twenty-three years old. Those under that age will have until their twenty-third birthday to apply. After this time, no further applications will be accepted.

APPLICANT INFORMATION

BOTC ( F) ROUTE:

CHILDREN BORN OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE

TO BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES FATHERS BEFORE 1st JULY 2006:

Guidance:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/registration-as-a-british-overseas-territories-citizen-botcf

Application form:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-as-a-british-overseas-territories-citizen-form-botc-f

BOTC (M) ROUTE:

CHILDREN BORN ABROAD TO BRITISH

OVERSEAS TERRITORIES MOTHERS BEFORE 1st JANUARY 1983:

Guidance: