Thread: Britain denies amnesty plan for illegal migrants

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14062006/325/b ... rants.html



LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair denied on Wednesday the government planned an amnesty for up to half a million illegal immigrants but, for the first time, experts are openly touting the idea as a solution to a seemingly intractable problem.

With hundreds of thousands of foreigners living illegally in Britain, many experts say a government pledge to send them all home is simply unworkable.
nstead, they want the Home Office to regularise the status of illegal workers, allowing them to contribute to the economy and easing pressure on the officials tasked with tracing and deporting them.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne suggested he was open to an amnesty when, under questioning from a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, he declined to rule one out and said he had asked his staff to look into the issue.

But on Wednesday, the government, aware of how unpopular an amnesty would be with many Britons and the country's influential tabloid newspapers, dismissed the proposal.

"There are no plans for an amnesty," a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters.

"Liam Byrne was doing the proper job of a minister, which was to make sure he has all the facts and analysis appropriate, but there are no plans for an amnesty."

Many Britons blame illegal immigrants for crime and would oppose any proposal to let them stay.

But the number of experts advocating an amnesty, which would allow immigrants to apply for work permits but not grant them citizenship, appears to be growing.

"All the evidence suggests that an amnesty would be the economically sensible policy to deal with illegal workers," said Danny Sriskandarajah, associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a left-leaning thinktank.

"The government is right to be considering this move and should not be scared to get involved in a public debate."

The IPPR estimates the forced deportation of all irregular workers would cost around 4.7 billion pounds. In contrast, if those immigrants were allowed to stay, they would contribute an extra one billion pounds to the economy in taxes.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of one of the country's biggest trade unions, the TGWU, said it would be "impractical and immoral" to deport Britain's illegal workers, even if they could be traced.

"The time has come for the government to be brave, distinguishing between deporting the few who commit serious crimes and allowing the many undocumented migrant workers to remain," he said in a statement.

Tauhid Pasha, legal policy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said that at the current rate of removal, it would take the government around 20-25 years to send Britain's illegal immigrants home.

"It's wholly unrealistic," he said.

Critics of the proposal said any discussion of an amnesty would only encourage would-be illegal immigrants to head to Britain in the hope of being allowed to stay.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft)

Gee a mirror image of here.......

I sure hope the Brits and the French start to deal with the invasion of illegals to their countries....Australia has taken a firm stand against Islamic kooks who are trying to establish their crap sharia law in the dominion and have been told to leave if they didn't wish to abide in the way a democracy functions.

Deja vu

I think they're waiting to see what we do......... Unfortunatly isn't it harder for them since they're a part of that European Union?

Where ever Bush goes there is talk of Amnesty. I just now heard on Cavuto that the new Prime Minister of Iraq may give Amnesty to the insurgents, now Tony Blair may grant Amnesty too

Bush's head is in his wife's bush....just like Clinton's was in Monica....there's a time for foreplay and horseplay...and a time for playing hardball.