united-kingdom air-travel
Do I lose my rights as a British citizen when I travel to an other country for tourism?
<p>A friend of mine got detained at the airport in Jordan because his name matches a name of someone who has issues with the Jordanian authorities.</p>

<p>My friend is British and he only was passing through Jordan. They forced him to stay there for 24 hours with no food and he had to sleep on the floor before they determined that he is not the man they were after.</p>

<p>Does this incident mean that when you travel to a foreign country &ndash; even for a short time &ndash; that you give up your rights as a British citizen? </p>

<p>Your rights<sup>1</sup> in a country depend on that country's laws with respect to aliens (foreigners).</p>

<p>While you may expect some standards where countries have obligations under international law, a sovereign state is free to legislate with respect to aliens as it wishes.</p>

<p>The short answer? You don't have British rights when you travel abroad, and the same is true for any person who travels internationally. But each country may afford certain rights and privileges to foreigners, especially those who are in the country legally.</p>

<hr>

<p><sub>
1. Let's call them <em>effective</em> rights, because there's been a lot of (accurate) talk about you retaining your UK rights when you travel. Though this may be true, your experience overseas is going to really come down to the rights that the country that you are in recognises. Your <strong>responsibilities</strong> as a UK citizen, however, may continue even if not recognised by the country you are in by virtue of extraterritorial legislation.
</sub></p>

<p>There are rights and duties that you have as a British Citizen. You keep these rights wherever you go. These rights say for example how British Police has to treat you, but if you are say in Germany, you are unlikely to meet British Police, so these rights are not very helpful abroad. </p>

<p>You have certain rights as a EU citizen. These rights will be useful to you mostly within the EU. Strange enough, some of these rights that you have as an EU citizen you (a British citizen) have everywhere in the EU, except in Britain! On the other hand, if you visit Germany, you might have EU rights that German citizens don't have. </p>

<p>Next, whatever country you go to, you may stay there long enough to become a resident, or short time to be a visitor. For example, if you visit the USA you have the right not to be robbed or shot. You don't have any right to enter the country (but they let you in because it's good for business), but once you're there you actually have quite a lot of rights, which the USA voluntarily give every person present in the USA. And that applies to people who are there illegally as well. Sure, the police can arrest them (like they arrest people believed to have committed a crime), or they can be removed, but they still have all the basic rights.</p>

<p>So as a visitor you have some rights, enough to say you are not "there at your own risk". As a resident you usually gain even more rights, but also more duties. </p>

<p>While the circumstances you describe do not mean your friend lost any of his British rights (which only apply to interactions with the British government), it is true that being outside of the UK a British subject does lose some protections.</p>

<p>For example, recently the UK assassinated three British subjects who were allegedly part of IS, on the grounds that they may have been plotting against the UK. If they had been in the UK at the time it is unlikely they would have been attacked with a drone; their rights under UK law would have required and arrest and prosecution. The government has stated that since they were outside the UK in what they claim was a "theatre of war", their killings did not require judicial oversight.</p>

<p>Well, not just oversight, we don't have capital punishment in the UK at all, and certainly not for the innocent.</p>

<p>You may have gotten rights and privileges mixed up.  You don't have rights, as a British subject (you're subjects, right, not citizens?) in a foreign country.  But it used to be that you had a <em>privilege</em>:   That being a British subject would enable, even cause, the British government to use its influence - or even enforce its influence with military might - to protect you anywhere in the world.  See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Pacifico" rel="nofollow">Don Pacifico</a> for example.  And that might have made foreign countries think twice before messing with you.</p>

<p>But that was over 150 years ago.  Today, your privilege: don't count on it.</p>

<p>There are ways that you can give up your UK citizenship; travelling to a foreign country is not one of them.</p>

<p>While traveling you retain all your rights and obligations as a UK citizen - this includes the right to be detained and charged in accordance with the laws of the country through which you are travelling (unless you are an accredited diplomat). This is exactly the same right that you have at home!</p>

<p>While travelling one of your other rights is for the UK government to offer you <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-british-nationals-abroad-a-guide" rel="nofollow">consular support</a>. Among the (long) list of things the government <strong>cannot</strong> do is:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Investigate crimes, get you out of prison,
  prevent the local authorities from deporting
  you after your prison sentence, or interfere
  in criminal or civil court proceedings; because
  we cannot interfere in another country’s
  processes, and must respect their systems just
  as we expect them to respect the UK’s laws
  and legal processes.</p>
</blockquote>
