Source: Radio New Zealand
Dual British or Irish New Zealanders have no exemption to the new UK border rule. RNZ /Gill Bonnett
Dual United Kingdom-New Zealand nationals say it is unfair some European Britons are allowed to dodge new passport rules, while British migrants in other parts of the world have to fall in line.
British citizens or their children who used to visit family and friends there using only a New Zealand passport and an ETA were “bodyslammed” by news last month they would need a UK passport, one migrant said.
Steve Horrell, of Upper Hutt, had already applied for and received his passport, but his son overseas had to scramble for documents so that the whole family – including young grandchildren classed as British – could join him on a trip to the UK next month.
He said Monday’s revelation that European Union nationals granted British citizenship post-Brexit under the Settled Scheme (EUSS) could get permanent exemptions from needing UK passports to travel there was unfair.
“I find it disappointing, actually, because it would be very easy to treat everybody the same. To my mind, if you’re going to apply something and say, you know, in my son’s case, they have to have British passports, why can’t they just apply that around the world? Because there might be a guy living next door to him who falls under this EUSS thing, whose kids might not have to do this, but his do.
“I do think it’s unfair because, Britain voted to be not part of the EU anymore and in many cases, I’ll be quite frank, I think that the government in the UK, whichever government, they sort of can choose between the laws they want to interpret, which suits them best.”
Former Te Papa museum curator and academic Mark Stocker says it’s ‘nuts’ that immigrants from Britain and dual citizens through descent can no longer travel on a New Zealand passport to enter the UK. Supplied
Mark Stocker, also born in the UK and a dual New Zealand citizen, said he was feeling disaffected about the UK policy and response, and sorry for travellers who were affected in more extreme ways, such as needing to visit sick relatives.
The change for EU settled status citizens reinforced the feeling that dual citizens elsewhere now had second class status, he said – behind those who only needed a $37 ETA or a third country’s identity document.
“If you’re being charitable, it’s a small step forward from a realisation of how god-awful the change policy was. But the expat Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians and more, it does nothing whatsoever for us.
“It’s perfectly consistent with the abysmal way in which the whole thing was introduced in the first place, where lies were told by the British government about us being told in good time.
“If the government had fairly signalled the new policies, then one might grin and bear them”.
But the way it has been introduced was “pretty dreadful, pretty abysmal really.”
He could not use an expired UK passport – one of the suggestions the UK put forward as a temporary measure if people also had their valid New Zealand passport – because he threw it away when it expired.
Countries such as Australia and Japan were looking like more attractive alternatives to Britain for a holiday, especially with the war in the Middle East, he said.
The Home Office said the change was made to ensure rights under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement were upheld.
The British High Commission in Wellington has been approached for comment, including whether it has had to help citizens who have been trying to travel to the UK but did not have the right passport.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
