Shabana Mahmood’s proposal that asylum seekers must now wait 20 years before applying for citizenship, with reviews every 30 months (Shabana Mahmood warns Labour MPs ‘dark forces are stirring up anger’ over migration, 16 November) brought to mind my Hungarian aunt, a Red Cross nurse who sought refuge in Britain in 1947. She had been sacked by the Nazis in 1942 for helping her Jewish friends, and then fell foul of the Soviets in 1946 for helping friends deemed to be “class enemies”.
After retraining, she became a health visitor, later lecturing in health visiting at the Polytechnic of North London. She was immensely proud of her British citizenship gained in 1955, but her underlying sense of insecurity was profound. Suffering from dementia, she was admitted to hospital in 2001 after a heart attack and became very agitated and upset. “I am a British citizen,” she cried. “You have no right to detain me. I have a British passport!” Nothing I or the doctor said could reassure her.
