Some passports revoked after 100 cases discovered in which documents were not checked during application process

UK citizenship has been given to the children of eastern Europeans living in Britain without the proper paperwork, the Guardian has learned.

The affected families come from countries including Poland and the Czech Republic that joined the EU in 2004 and so far around 100 problematic cases have been discovered, although there may be more.



The children were eligible for passports from 2009 onwards if their parents could produce a registration document showing they had worked in the UK for five years.



But in some cases officials failed to request the document. The errors were discovered only when parents applied to renew their children’s passports, which last five years.

The home secretary, Theresa May, is understood to have only been made aware of the problem when the Guardian raised it with the Home Office. But the Guardian understands that civil servants have known about the failure in procedure since at least November as significant numbers of renewal requests were sent to passport offices.

May is considered a frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest, in which control of immigration is set to be a key issue as the party grapples with the legacy of the EU referendum.

It is understood about 100 problematic cases have been discovered and some children’s passports have already been revoked. The numbers affected could grow as several more years’ worth of passports are yet to be renewed.



The errors could lead to the cancellation of citizenship for children who were born or have been living in the UK for more than a decade, if parents cannot now provide the necessary documents.



The Home Office said a small number of eastern European citizens who were applying for British passports for their children between 1 May 2009 and 31 October 2014 “were not asked for a workers registration scheme (WRS) certificate or asked to clarify that they were exempt from registration (student, self-employed etc)”.

It added: “They were asked for, and they provided, all the other forms of evidence which proved they were exercising their treaty rights as a worker, jobseeker or student. When the applicant applies for renewal HMPO [Her Majesty’s Passport Office] is seeking to confirm whether the parents did apply for WRS or are exempt.”

A number of children’s passports have already been revoked and civil servants are said to be consulting lawyers on whether they can strip them of citizenship as well.

On Sunday the facade of west London’s Polish Social and Cultural Association in was sprayed with racist graffiti. The incident that is being investigated by police, and appears to be one of a spate of incidents related to Thursday’s vote to leave.

Barbara Drozdowicz, director of the Eastern European Advice Centre, said the errors would come as a “real shock” and a “betrayal” to many eastern Europeans.



Drozdowicz added: “This is why lots of people are here, to make sure their children have better futures than they have, and the decisions of Home Office, how they will decide on this issue is of fundamental importance … It will impact on the sense of belonging of hundreds of thousands of people living in the UK in the eastern European community.”

Drozdowicz called on the Home Office to honour the passports it had already awarded. “What I would like to see is the Home Office accepting the state as it is and not withdrawing citizenship and those passports,” she said.

The Labour MP Frank Field, who has often voiced strong views on controlling immigration, said: “Voters want to be able to trust the government with our country’s borders. But a major cock-up on this scale has resulted in British passports being handed out like confetti, without all of the necessary legal paperwork being provided beforehand.

“The government therefore needs to inform voters what lessons it has learned from this error, and how will they be applied to the many thousands of children about to arrive in our country from Europe – both as citizens and as refugees.”