Thread: UK: New ID card for foreigners unveiled

New ID card for foreigners unveiled

The new identity card for foreign workers has been unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

It is blue and pink, credit card-sized and carries the royal crest and four flowers representing the nations of the UK: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock.

The cards, which will be issued to foreign workers from November, will display the individual's name, their photograph, the card's expiry date and details of how long they can stay and work in the country.

On the back it will also show their date and place of birth, their gender, nationality, and whether they are entitled to benefits.

Biometric data, including copies of the person's fingerprints, will be stored on a special security chip.

Ms Smith said the cards would protect against identity fraud, illegal working, and help people prove their identity easily.

She said: "Many people want securely and quickly to be able to prove their identity and want to be able to check people are who they say they are."

Between 50,000 and 60,000 cards will be issued by the end of next March and ministers predict one million a year will be issued from 2010.

The cards will be compulsory for foreign workers, who will have their fingerprints and photographs taken at six ID card centres in Croydon, Sheffield, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham and Cardiff when they renew their visas.

The first phase of the scheme will also target people suspected of abusing the immigration system, such as foreign students and people claiming the right to stay through marriage.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM ... LMue64eyoQ

Britain reveals design for disputed ID cards

LONDON (AFP) — Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled the design for the controversial identity cards Thursday, insisting that the soon-to-be-introduced plan would strengthen the country's security.

The documents, which will be issued to non-European foreign nationals from November, will feature the holder's name and date of birth, as well as a photograph, fingerprint record and other biometric data.

They will also include the holder's visa status and right to work, Smith said at a press conference in London.

Workers in airports and other high-security jobs will have to carry them from next year.

Anyone applying for a British passport from 2011 will be automatically added to a national identity database, but citizens will not be forced to obtain ID cards.

"ID cards will help protect against identity fraud, illegal working, reduce the use of multiple identities in organised crime and terrorism, crack down on those trying to abuse positions of trust and make it easier for people to prove they are who they say they are," Smith said.

The scheme has sparked fierce debate, with ministers claiming ID cards will help fight terrorism and illegal immigration and civil liberties groups countering they are an infringement of privacy.

It has been particularly hurt by a string of losses by the government of sensitive data, most notably the loss of 25 million Britons' personal information by a government agency last year.

The losses prompted concerns about authorities' ability to manage vast banks of peoples' private information.

There have also been disputes over the cost of the plan -- the Home Office says the scheme can be delivered for 4.74 billion pounds over 10 years, but some researchers say the figure could be much higher.

Smith said ID cards for foreign nationals and British citizens would have different designs, adding that while ID cards would be issued to foreigners under the age of 16, that would not be the case for British citizens.

Unlike its continental European neighbours, Britain has never had a mandatory ID card scheme other than during wartime, but the idea has gathered momentum since suicide bombings in London in July 2005 that left 56 dead.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKi ... rLIyA7MyQA

ID card scheme faces new stumbling block over fingerprinting
By Martin Bentham
Last updated at 2:12 PM on 25th September 2008

Jacqui Smith today admitted that it will be impossible to include fingerprints of some people on the Government's ID cards.

The revelation will raise new doubts about the effectiveness of the scheme.

But the Home Secretary claimed such difficulties were 'wholly exceptional' and said efforts to obtain alternative biometric data were under way.

Her admission, however, is likely to be seized on by opponents as further evidence that the £4.7billion ID card scheme will be unworkable as well as unnecessarily expensive.


Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reveals the new ID card - but immediately had to admit it would be impossible to incorporate fingerprints of everyone

The Home Secretary's comments came at a Westminster news conference as she unveiled a first identity card for foreign nationals.

It is blue and pink, the size of a credit card, and carries the royal crest and four flowers representing the nations of the UK: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock.

The card is due to be released in November for all foreign students from outside the European Economic area - the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - and to migrants seeking marriage visas.

The card is then due to be rolled out to all foreign nationals who visit from outside the European Economic area for more than six months by 2011.

Ms Smith said it would improve national security and help combat fraud and illegal immigration.

She said: 'Many people want securely and quickly to be able to prove their identity and want to be able to check people are who they say they are.'

She denied that problems with obtaining fingerprints from a minority of people - such as the elderly or those with missing fingers - would undermine the scheme but admitted that the Government was still working to find a solution to such difficulties.

'It is so exceptional that it will not undermine the fundamental nature of the scheme,' she said.

'In the very, very few cases of people who cannot give a fingerprint we are looking at mechanisms to deal with those categories. It will be wholly exceptional.'

Despite her assurances, the Home Secretary's admission is likely to be seized upon by opponents who claim that problems with obtaining biometric data will undermine the effectiveness of the scheme.

Earlier today, ministers were accused of picking on 'soft targets' as the card was launched to the public.

Opponents claimed that ministers risked harming race relations by engaging in 'populist bullying' of foreign migrants.

Phil Booth, the national coordinator of the campaign group NO2ID, said: 'To suggest that ID cards are somehow connected to immigration policy, Jacqui Smith is deliberately engaging in populist bullying of the soft targets, anonymous individuals seeking marriage visas or education - those who have no choice but to keep quiet and comply.'

The Tories have already promised to cancel the scheme if elected at the next election and the Liberal Democrats are similarly opposed.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of pressure group Liberty, also attacked the scheme and said: 'Picking on foreigners first is divisive politics - as costly to our race relations as our purses.'

The ID card will display the holder's name and photograph, details of how long he or she can stay and work in the country, and the card's expiry date.

On the back the cards will also show date and place of birth, gender, nationality, and whether they are entitled to benefits.

Biometric data, including copies of the person's fingerprints, will be stored on a security chip.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 cards will be issued by the end of next March and Ministers predict one million a year will be issued from 2010.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nting.html

Analysis: ID cards - What happens next?
Thursday, 25 Sep 2008 13:12

The 'ID card' unveiled today Printer friendly version The first British ID card has been unveiled. How long until you have to carry one?

There's a potential future Britain in which today marks the date citizens all had to carry an ID card. About the size of a credit card, the document holds the owner's photograph, nationality, date of birth, immigration status and biometric details such as fingerprints.

Should Labour stay in power – and that's a big if – the process will work like this:

Foreign nationals in the UK will have to start applying for the cards from November 25th. The cards will be required for this group in about three years. The home office is targeting those groups most likely to enter the UK illegally, starting with foreign students and those seeking to marry a UK citizen. The government wants 90 per cent of foreign nationals to be covered by the scheme by 2014/15.

The first cards for UK citizens will be imposed next year for workers in sensitive roles and locations like airports. They become available – although not mandatory – to young people from 2010 and for the general population by 2011/12. By 2011, anyone over 16 applying for a new passport will have their details added to the national identity register.

But that's all if Labour get in. Both opposition parties are implacably opposed to the plan, so in the eventuality of a Tory government, or even a hung parliament with Tories and Lib Dems sharing power, the scheme will almost certainly die. A hung parliament under a Labour - Lib Dem coalition could see the cards remain as part of the negotiations required to form it.

Of all government options for the general election in 2010, a Conservative government is obviously the most likely, but it's not yet clear if the Tories would dismantle the entirety of the scheme or retain the foreign nationals section while halting its expansion to the general population. A party spokesman we contacted is still getting back to us with an explicit assurance that the parts of scheme already implemented will be rolled back.

The first option could leave the UK with a similar system to Japan, where foreign nationals and even the children of immigrants are forced to carry proof of ID, but citizens do not.

But this may all be premature. Michael Parker from No2ID has pointed out today's presentation was not actually of an ID card. Describing today's events as "pure theatre", Mr Parker says the card is in fact just a new visitor visa, designed to replace paper documents.
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/opinion- ... 242277.htm

The green light continues here in America for illegal, undocumented workers.

I was just told by Mrs. Miller of Congressman Coble, what the employers side is on immigration. Employers says, "The new Americans hires want the wages of the immigrant who has been working five years."

But did anyone check to see if this immigrant is documented to work in the United States. NO IS THE ANSWER! I-9s are not required by federal law to be E-Verified.

So aiding and abetting and ignoring this fact is fine with our elected officials, is what I gathered from my conversation.

I was told I needed to vote Republican, oh yes those that have back pockets filled with corporate money.

And Congressman Coble is probably the best we can hope for in North Carolina.

When talking to Mrs. Miller I asked why isn't Congressman Coble telling the people about I-9s and the abuse?

She did not like that at all.

Contact info for Congressman Coble is 202 226 9928