'Big rise' in illegal immigrants
The UK is home to nearly three quarters of a million illegal immigrants,
research obtained by the BBC's Panorama programme suggests.
A Home Office estimate in 2001 put the figure at 430,000.
But a recent study commissioned for the Mayor of London estimated the
number of illegal or "irregular" immigrants and their dependents to be
725,000 in 2007.
The government said it would not comment on estimates, but said the UK
border is one of the world's toughest.
The study into the economic impact of an amnesty for illegal immigrants
was carried out by the London School of Economics (LSE).
London is home to an estimated two thirds of illegal immigrants in the
UK.
The mayor, Boris Johnson, raised the idea of an illegal immigrant
amnesty - which would offer some of them the right to work officially
and eventually gain full citizenship - during the 2008 mayoral election.
'Regularise status'
In Monday's episode, Panorama takes a closer look at the idea, speaking
to politicians and employers, as well as illegal immigrants, to examine
the pluses and minuses of such a plan.
“ The proposal for an amnesty starts with a conversation in London with
the best of intentions and it ends up with dead bodies in the back of
lorries in northern France ”
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas
Speaking to Panorama, Mr Johnson said the government should be doing
more to prevent illegal immigrants getting in, but that trying to return
the hundreds of thousands already here is impractical and another
solution is needed:
"If it does look as though they could make a contribution to society, we
should regularise their status or offer them the chance of regularising
their status," he said.
"There would be some very tough criteria. Obviously no criminal record
would be one, an ability to support yourself and support your family,
commitment to society and the most, the most important thing is they
should have been here for a considerable period of time."
'Chronic failure'
The government is now tightening up border controls, introducing the "e-
borders" system which counts people in and out of the country.
But at current rates of deportation, using the new LSE figure of
725,000, it would take 34 years and cost almost £9bn to clear the
backlog of people who are currently in the UK illegally.
But the idea of an amnesty is not supported by the Conservative Party or
the government.
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas says that far from helping, an amnesty
would just encourage more illegal immigrants to come.
"What unfortunately would happen is that people traffickers and others
would see that as a pull factor to get people to the United Kingdom
illegally and we would end up with a bigger problem not just for our
society, but for the people themselves involved," Mr Woolas told the
programme.
"The proposal for an amnesty starts with a conversation in London with
the best of intentions and it ends up with dead bodies in the back of
lorries in northern France," he added.
A UK Border Agency (UKBA) spokesperson said that it did not tolerate
anyone who abused the system and that the UK had "one of the toughest
borders in the world and we are determined to ensure it stays that way."
'Hard political argument'
The spokesperson added: "There is now triple ring of security that
protects Britain: fingerprint visas, ID cards for foreign nationals that
lock people to one identity and our high-tech electronic border controls
that check people against police, immigration and customs watch-lists
and will cover even more passenger journeys by the end of this year.
"We are also taking tough enforcement action. Since the UK Border Agency
was launched in April 2008, UKBA staff have made over 4,900 arrests as a
result of people encountered during illegal working operations and our
tough new force at the border last year stopped over 28,000 individual
attempts to cross the Channel illegally."
Mr Johnson admits that it is a "hard political argument to win" but
argues that we need to be practical, telling Panorama: "If people are
going to be here and we've chronically failed to kick them out it's
morally right that they should contribute in their taxes to the rest of
society".
The LSE report estimates that if a minimum of five years residence in
the UK were needed to qualify for an amnesty, 450,000 people could
qualify for such regularisation.
Immigration - Time for an Amnesty? 9 March 2008 on BBC One at 8.30pm.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.
Published: 2009/03/09 00:47:26 GMT
Monday, 9 March 2009
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