ID cards should cover half a million illegal migrants in 2008
eGov monitor reports an IPPR press release, in which Danny Sriskandarajah, IPPR Associate Director, said:
If the ID card system has any chance of working, then it will need to include the half a million people living in the shadows. It will be expensive and almost impossible to deport hundreds of thousands of people from the UK so the Government should give illegal workers the chance to come forward and be issued with an ID card. As well as improving the integrity of the ID card system, this would help tackle exploitation and protect the National Minimum Wage.
The original IPPR press release is here. It notes:
The scale of irregular migration can only be roughly estimated. The Home Office’s median estimate is 430,000 but they say the figure could be as high as 570,000 or low as 310,000.
…
The National Audit Office has estimated the cost of forcibly deporting an irregular migrant at £11,000 so it could cost up to £4.7billion to deport all those currently in Britain.
October 16th, 2006 at 15:36
We don,t want i.d. cards ,whether they are for illegal immigrants or anybody else.This to me seems like a cynical ploy by Blair to pander to right wing elements who will welcome anything as long as it cuts down immigration.But can we believe any figures put out by the home office at all.
December 2nd, 2006 at 10:06
More inflation raising minimum wages are hardly going to attract the free-market right-wing. If the ID card is to protect the minimum wage then that simply adds to the harms it will cause.
December 3rd, 2006 at 16:53
Readers may or may not be aware that biometric ID cards have been announced for Germany as from 2008. They will take the form of tarted-up national ID cards with the addition of a fingerprint (or fingerprints – at the moment I don’t know which).
Initially nothing similar had been planned for foreign nationals living in Germany. However, somebody screamed (an envious lot, the Germans)that what what was good enough for the natives ought to be good enough for us furriners as well. Accordingly, as from 2005, all foreign nationals in Germany will will be required to “register” to be photographed and fingerprinted.
The card for foreigners will be a tarted-up residence permit with the difference that – and here’s the kicker – it will have to be carried at all times, unlike the current residence permit. I for one have no such intention. I’m also toying with the idea of processing my card, when I get it, in the micro-wave oven for about 30-60 seconds.
Another brick in the edifice of the poice state, but don’t forget – under German law you have to be able to identitfy yourself to the authorities, including the police, when required to do so anyway, i.e., without any concrete reason to suspect that a crime may have been committed.
The fingerprints and mug-shots will be recorded on a data base somewhere but, for what it’s worth, Germany does not at present seem to be planning any equivalent of the proposed British National Identity Register.
August 29th, 2007 at 14:35
pls let the illegal migrant b legal in britain,bcos they re the peoples doing the domestic works cleaning the street,offices,market areas and from it the money they make they paid tax from it .look at it this way many of british born cant not wake up 4am in the morning and b going 2 early morning cleaning job and this people will go out that time 4 the job still pupils in britain re not appreciating it.remember this peoples re human beings like us pls pls pls let give them a better life 2 live and GOD b with all of us amen.God bless