07 March 2007

ID card crackdown on immigrants

Eleanor Dallaway

John Reid, UK Home Secretary, has today re-stated his support for a crackdown on illegal immigrants living and working in the UK. By bringing in compulsory ID cards for all foreign nationals, he believes that it will be easier to track down those who are benefiting from the UK’s healthcare, education and jobs illegally.

“It’s unfair that foreigners come to this country illegitimately and steal our benefits, steal our services like the NHS and undermine the minimal wage by working”, he said. Reid announced that more failed asylum seekers are being deported than ever before.

“It’s impossible to have an amnesty without ID cards and a clean database, because you firstly don’t have any incentives for people to actually come up front and register, and make themselves available, and secondly you have no means of tracing them” former Home Secretary David Blunkett has said. “An amnesty could be used as an incentive to induce illegal immigrants to come out of the shadows”.

The Home Office has also announced a plan for a pilot scheme that would send text message reminders to people whose visas were shortly due to run out. “We have to tackle not only the illegal trafficking but also the illegal jobs”, said Reed.

This policy has been approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers, who believe it to be a step forward.

ID cards would provide those legally seeking employment with the right to prove their right to work. Critics however, argue that although there is currently no measure to force people to carry their cards at all times, this will eventually become necessary.

It is argued that identity cards are necessary to prevent identity theft and benefit fraud. It is also said that they will prevent illegal immigration and illegal working.

Those opposed to the ID card scheme argue that employers who are already willing to employ illegal immigrants and break the law will continue to do so, with or without identity cards. There is also a concern that ID cards will worsen the harassment of ethnic minorities and provide another pretext for stop-and-search.

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