Prince Harry Says It's 'Unsafe' to Bring Children to UK Under His Current 'Security Arrangements'
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US-based Prince Harry, who together with his wife Megan Markle, lost his taxpayer-funded police security after stepping back from royal duties in 2020, has been seeking a judicial review of the Home Office's refusal to allow him to privately fund protection for himself and his family when they're in the UK.
Prince Harry’s lawyers have told a court hearing that the British royal is wary of bringing his children – Archie, 3, and 8-month-old Lilibet – to his homeland because it's not safe without police protection.
Lilibat is yet to meet her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, her grandfather, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the family.
The Duke of Sussex “does not feel safe when he is in the UK given the security arrangements applied to him,'' Harry’s lawyer Shaheed Fatima said during Friday’s preliminary hearing at the High Court in London, reported AP.
“It goes without saying that he does want to come back to see family and friends and to continue to support the charities that are so close to his heart. Most of all, this is and always will be, his home,'' added Fatima.
The royal’s legal team reiterated that Prince Harry was eager to bring his children to visit his home country, but currently it's too risky.
Prince Harry did not attend the hearing, which considered requests by both sides in the case for some court documents to remain private.
16 January 2022, 01:31 GMT
While all senior members of Britain's royal family are provided with taxpayer-funded police protection, the Duke of Sussex was forced to give this up when he and his ex-actress wife, Meghan Markle, opted to step down as working royals and move to the United States in 2020.
At the time, the couple explained the bombshell move as ostensibly prompted by the overwhelmingly intrusive and racist attitudes of the British media.
Harry, who resides with his family in Santa Barbara, California, has since launched a judicial review in the High Court against a refusal of the Home Office to allow him to personally pay for police protection when in the UK. The younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, has underscored that he seeks "not to impose on the taxpayer."
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, left, and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex speak at Global Citizen Live in Central Park on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, in New York.
© AP Photo / Evan Agostini
The Duke of Sussex has also emphasised that his private security team in the US lacked adequate jurisdiction abroad or access to UK intelligence information.
A legal representative for Prince Harry said the legal claim in the High Court was filed in September 2021 "to challenge the decision-making behind the security procedures, in the hopes that this could be re-evaluated for the obvious and necessary protection required."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, release their 2021 family Christmas card featuring the first photo of daughter Lilibet Diana: “Archie made us a ‘Mama’ and a ‘Papa’, and Lili made us a family” 🤎 pic.twitter.com/mlhfEMGshF
— Dionne Grant (@DionneGrant) December 23, 2021
According to the royal’s lawyers, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had offered to pay the costs of police protection in January 2020 when discussing their future roles with the Queen at Sandringham, however, the offer was purportedly dismissed.
"Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats," a statement by the royal’s legal team stated earlier in the year.
