Originally Posted by par
I only know of one country that grants citizenship merely upon the act of being born within the national boundaries -the united states. While i haven't researched it, i know of no other country (and certainly not most of the european countries) which gives out citizenships without either adoption, naturalization or having a parent which is british.
Not the case. And there are exceptions for the US too.
For example, children of diplomats born in the US are not to be conferred citizenship in the US. At least that's according to treaties and US law other than the Constitution. Perhaps in conflict, but in practical terms if State/DHS determines a US-born person was born to parents on a diplomatic visa at the time, they will often default to refusing to recognize such person as a US citizen. That said, plenty of such people get US passports anyway.
Also, the US is anything but unique in jus soli, citizenship by birth regardless of parentage.
Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Pakistan, Mexico are just the ones that come to the top of my mind as being the same vis-a-vis citizenship as us.
And the list does anything but end there, especially for people born before the late 1980s.
Originally Posted by par
(granted, the whole overseas and british colony issues makes the notion of passports tricky, but if this guy is pakistani which his name suggests none of those rules applies).
This guy is not Pakistani, or at least he does not hold a current Pakistani-passport and is not entitled to one under current circumstances.
Given his age and a few other things, my assumption is safer than an assumption that he wasn't born a British citizen. I could be wrong, but probability is that he was born a British citizen (for a variety of reasons).
Also, it's a certainty that confusing him for a Pakistani citizen is just wrong.