LONDON, England - Hundreds of Malaysians who tore up their passports and set off for Britain in the belief they could claim citizenship under a quirk of colonial law have found themselves stateless and desperate.

"Dee", an architect from Penang, is now reduced to washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant here -- a victim, he said, of a "citizenship that is not real".

"I have become an illegal immigrant... actually even worse because at least they have their own country to go back to. I don't," said the 34-year-old.

A little-known legal clause gave residents of Penang and Malacca the status of British Overseas Citizenship (BOC) when Malaysia gained independence in 1957.

Immigration activists said that a few hundred Malaysians took up citizenship, most of them eventually being granted the right after residing in Britain for more than five years in the 1980s and 1990s.

Immigration laws tightened up in 2002, ending any chance for Malaysian BOCs to register as British citizens.

But confusion over the change, combined with shady immigration lawyers out to make a buck, meant many Malaysians continued to pursue applications.

Dee, who had seen many BOC friends successfully gain citizenship, applied in 2003.

Ben Scaro, an Australian lawyer who advocates their cause, says the situation became messier as cases were left unresolved for years, and letters sent in 2005 told applicants they could not proceed unless they showed they had lost Malaysian citizenship.

As a result, a large number of BOCs, including Dee renounced their Malaysian citizenship -- a process that is extremely difficult to reverse.

"I filled up the forms to renounce my citizenship and my Malaysian passport was cut up," Dee said. "I was told by the officials at the Malaysian High Commission here that I was no longer a Malaysian citizen.

"What makes it worse is the British government saying it's very hard to renounce Malaysian citizenship and declaring we are still Malaysians while the Malaysian government says we are not Malaysians any more but British. It's crazy."

Sealing their fate, an Asylum and Immigration tribunal in July last year ruled that Malaysian BOCs who have or had Malaysian citizenship do not have a right to reside in Britain.

"We are looking at a situation where nearly 1,000 Malaysians who have given up their citizenship are now BOCs but have no right to stay in Britain," Scaro said.

It also ruled that a Malaysian BOC does not lose their Malaysian citizenship by applying for a BOC passport or renunciation of Malaysian nationality.

"The British Home Office effectively orchestrated the BOCs' statelessness.

"It said if you could not prove you are not Malaysian, your case could go forward, so of course the BOCs were going to go to the Malaysian High Commission and renounce.

"And then once they had renounced, then the decision came along, saying the BOC would no longer be a path to citizenship."

Malaysian constitutional lawyers also disagree with the British tribunal's interpretation of Malaysian law.

"If a Malaysian has gone through the renunciation process and followed the procedure, then the person is no longer a Malaysian citizen," lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said in Kuala Lumpur.

"Of course, Malaysia would not allow the citizen to renounce its citizenship without having another citizenship but as far as the government is concerned the British Overseas Citizenship, as its name implies, is another citizenship."

For Dee, the situation remains bleak.

"Malaysia will not take me and I have lived in Britain for 11 years," he said. "I am British, I have lived here for more than a third of my life and I am willing to work hard so why don't they just let me?" -- AFP