Olu Sowemimo was born in 1991 at St Guy's Hospital in London and grew up in Kennington, living what he describes as a normal childhood. He attended primary and secondary school, believing he was British. However, at age 20, his application for a British passport was rejected, revealing he was not considered a citizen under UK law.
Sowemimo's mother, a Nigerian migrant, had a visa but not permanent residency at the time of his birth. She later obtained citizenship for herself and his older brother, but assumed her UK-born son would face no issues. The rejection devastated the family, with his mother feeling guilty for the oversight.
Following his release from prison at 20—after being groomed into a county lines gang at 13 and imprisoned at 16—Sowemimo vowed to change his life. He became a youth worker, film-maker, and trustee for the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC). Yet his citizenship battle took nearly 15 years, during which he lived in fear of detention and deportation to a country he had never visited.
The UK does not grant birthright citizenship; a child's status depends on their parents' immigration status at birth. Campaigners warn that proposed changes by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood—doubling the required lawful residence for settlement from five to 10 years—could leave more children without citizenship, locking them out of security others receive at birth.
