Oh, I’m sure that’s not legal. If he was in the British Embassy when they seized the passport he was on British territory. So when he left the Embassy he was entering Belgium illegally from the UK. The Belgian authorities should just drop him back to the embassy.
Not seized, revoked. Valid when he left the UK, revoked while he was on hols
Reflects even more poorly on the UK though, doesn’t it?
As Lammy says: “It should not require press coverage for the Home Office act on such a gross injustice with basic decency. It is appalling that he has been forced to spend three weeks stateless, stranded and homeless in Brussels due to a Home Office blunder.”
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Nothing to do with press coverage, the Home Office saw the thread on SFN and thought they’d better do something. 
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Not what the newspaper article said “he went to the UK embassy in Belgium to seek help, only to be told his British passport – the only one he has ever owned – was no longer valid and have it confiscated from him, leaving him stateless”.
But all academic now thankfully
What does “revoked” mean. If they stamped it “revoked” that’s the same as seizing it. They have no right to “revoke” a passport British citizen’s passport/citizenship in this manner, while they are in transit. He should be allowed to return to the UK and for the law to take its course there. May set about turning the Home Office into the Gestapo and the odious Patel woman is reviling in continuing the trend.
The attached article is apposite IMO.
As you say it’s academic now.
‘Revoked’ basically means that they take away the rights that it represented. Like if your bank closes your account - you may still have your bank card, and it looks just the same as it did before, but it’s now useless because cash machines and card readers won’t accept it. In this case passport control didn’t accept his passport when he presented it.
As for the Embassy taking it off him and charging him £100 for a new one, I agree that is appalling.
The authorities seem to have lost view of the fact that they are there to serve the public, and the public is composed of the individuals they treat like dirt.
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Oh, I know what the word “revoked” means Anna, what I meant was what does it mean in practical terms. So, I actually overcame my inherent laziness and read the whole article.
Looks like when his passport was scanned by the Belgian border people it came up “revoked”. The passport systems are obviously more integrated than I thought. That pause after they slap it on the scanner is obviously the system lag before a green or red light. It’s interesting because I can understand Belgium not wanting you to enter with a revoked passport but leaving, after it had been revoked on the fly during your stay in Belgium? What happens if it’s revoked when you’re between flights in transit in Bongo Bongoland International airport. You could be stranded in Duty Free for the rest of you life.
Of course no airline will let will let you board unless they know you have a right of entry to the destination, because if you don’t they have to repatriate you. But they have no way of knowing a passport is valid at the gate.
Anyway, the key issue IMO is that the Embassy confiscated his passport on British territory and then dumped him out the door, paperless, onto Belgian territory. That can’t be legal. Some British diplomat turned a UK problem into a Belgian one.
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I’ve noticed at the ferries that when my passport is scanned, my details come up on the computer screen with my photo and various boxes of text - I’ve never managed to see exactly what information is there, you don’t feel you can stand with your nose pressed up against the window reading their computer screen! I guess that if an official at the HO in London adds a flag that says Revoked or Suspected Terrorist or whatever, any official linked into the system in another country who opens that screen a second later will see that flag.
Is this is part of the EU-wide system and if so will still cover British passports after this year, does anyone know? or is it more globalthan that?
Yes, naively I thought they were just recording the fact that I’d entered or left. I didn’t think the systems were hooked up with realtime verification. But I suppose they have to for those do it yourself scanners. I’d assumed they scanned your retina or whatever and compared it to the biometric data on the passport but it seems, based on this story, it’s more sophisticated. It’s also a heads up regarding the 180/270 day rule for tax.
The sharing of security data is on the agenda for the current Brexit negotiations. I think it’s tricky for the UK for several reasons, eg not wanting to align with EU standards on Data Privacy, not accepting the ECJ as the final arbiter. Trump will want access to data as part of a trade deal. Not least of all from the NHS for US big pharma. I saw a good quote from someone recently “the US sees personal data as something to be bought and sold, the EU sees it as private and to be protected and China sees as State property”. How to manage those different views and maintain good security is pretty tricky.
The UK is already on the naughty step…
Not good for confidence building.
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I cannot and never could understand how anybody could vote for this appalling person.
@Jane_Williamson can’t understand (and never could).
Perhaps I can help you 
?
You underestimate your intelligence and perspicacity, Jane.
You’re sharper than me, but even I know that, if every Tory MP shared and expressed Chope’s robust views and proclivities, England would be a true-blue one-party state. 
:smiley:
PS The St George flag has been blacked out by my mobile 
Why did this man allegedly lie about his country of birth and age, if he had nothing to hide ? Surely, if he had not then he would still have a British passport and British citizenship.
He was 14 years old and had come out of a war zone…who knows what his parents told him. And who knows if the Home Office got their facts right, as their track record at the moment is prity appalling.
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You can ask why somebody did something, but I’m not sure it makes sense to ask why somebody allegedly did something. I think you would have to say “Why would he have lied”.
Apparently he does have a British passport and British citizenship,.
The Home Office’s original state rationale for cancelling the passport was that Mr Lala’s naturalisation application was made on the basis that he was born in 1986 in Serbia, but that the department believes he was born in 1985 in Albania. The department did not explain how it had come to that conclusion.
I 
a happy ending!
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