For most parents, registering a child's birth is a simple, joyful formality. For hundreds of thousands of children born in the UK to parents without settled status, however, the path to citizenship is fraught with complexity, cost, and years of uncertainty. The recent story of Olu Sowemimo, a London-born youth worker who spent 15 years unaware he was not a UK citizen, starkly reveals the human consequences of this system—a system facing potential further tightening under new government proposals.
A Life Upended: Discovering He Was Not British
Olu Sowemimo was born in 1991 at St Guy's Hospital in London and grew up in Kennington, living what he considered a normal London childhood. He attended primary and secondary school, firmly believing he was British. This belief was shattered at the age of 20 when he applied for his first passport.
His application was rejected. "I found out that technically I wasn't British," Sowemimo explains. "This was such a shock to me and to my mother as well. It devastated us." His mother, who had migrated from Nigeria, held a visa when he was born but had not yet secured permanent residency. She later obtained settled status and citizenship for herself and Olu's older brother, who was born in Nigeria. She assumed her UK-born son would automatically be a citizen, a common and devastating misconception.
Living in Fear: The 15-Year Fight for Belonging
Suddenly, Sowemimo's entire identity was thrown into question. "I slowly started to see myself differently from everybody else," he says. He was consumed by a constant, gnawing fear of detention and deportation to a country he had never visited. "Every day I'm coming into work... I'm constantly thinking, could today be the day I am detained and deported?"
His journey to rectify his status was labyrinthine. Initial legal advice proved confusing and unhelpful. Hope finally arrived through Solange Valdez-Symonds, the supervising solicitor and CEO of the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC). This charity campaigns for children's citizenship rights and highlighted a key legal provision: children born in the UK who live here for 10 years and are of "good character" are entitled to registration.
However, this "good character" requirement became a major hurdle. Despite turning his life around after being groomed into a gang as a teenager—and dedicating himself to youth work—Sowemimo's initial application was refused based on past offences. The PRCBC team worked tirelessly to document his rehabilitation and community contributions to overturn the decision.
"I know I belong here, that I am of good character, but I had to keep proving and proving and proving it," he recalls, describing the isolation, depression, and anxiety of his prolonged limbo.
A Resolution and a Warning for the Future
In 2024, at the age of 32, Olu Sowemimo finally received confirmation that his application for British citizenship had been approved. The relief was mixed with anger. "Why did I have to wait until I was a grown man to find out I was British?" he asks. He promptly booked his first-ever flight, a holiday to Fiji, finally free to travel.
While his personal nightmare is over, campaigners warn that many more could face similar fates. The current government has proposed doubling the period of lawful residence required for settlement from five to ten years. The PRCBC and other groups argue this will significantly increase the number of children growing up in the UK without citizenship, locked out of the security their peers receive at birth.
Sowemimo's message to policymakers is direct: "These policies are forcing people to really second guess who they are. You're alienating us from everybody... It is horrible to have the fear of being deported to a country we had never stepped foot in."
Today, with a passport in hand, he asserts his identity firmly. "I know who I am. It's such a shame I needed a little book to confirm that to me. But at this point, I am British. No matter what anybody tells me." His story stands as a powerful testament to the hidden battles fought within Britain's complex nationality framework.
