Correspondence
British Nationality (The Gambia) Order 2018 (SI 2018/620)
9.After voluntarily leaving the Commonwealth on 3 October 2013, The Gambia was readmitted to the Commonwealth on 8 February 2018. This instrument, laid by the Home Office, amends the list in Schedule 3 to the British Nationality Act 1981 to allow citizens of The Gambia to be regarded again as Commonwealth citizens under UK law.
10.As Commonwealth citizens they will be eligible to enter the UK under the Immigration Rules on an ancestry visa and, if qualified, have the right to vote in UK elections to stand for election to Parliament and be eligible to hold certain posts, such as judge, magistrate, minister, police constable, member of the armed forces, or civil servant. However the Explanatory Memorandum to the instrument explained that when The Gambia left the Commonwealth any Gambian nationals with the Right of Abode in the UK lost that status, and the current Order does not have the effect of reversing this.
11.We wrote to the Minister of State for Immigration to ask how many Gambians were affected by this change and how they could seek appointment to the roles mentioned if they had not had their Right of Abode reinstated. The correspondence is published in Appendix 2.