Government plans tougher border controls
Tim Hall writes in the Daily Telegraph:
Measures to tighten Britain’s borders will be announced today in the latest bid to crack down on illegal immigration.
Border staff will be given new powers, including the rights to fingerprint and digitally store the photograph of any foreign national arriving in the country. The move is expected to pave the way for full biometric ID cards for all immigrants.
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Later this morning the Home Office will introduce the changes in the Borders Bill – the fifth piece of legislation introduced in eight years in a bid to get more control over immigration.
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Mr Reid’s expected measures have already been widely criticised. Phil Booth, national coordinator of NO2ID, which campaigns against the introduction of identity cards, said the Government was making a “devastating” mistake.
He said: “We’re talking about people who contribute billions of pounds a year in tax to our economy being told they must be fingerprinted and recorded to live and work here.”
Danny Sriskandarajah, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, told the BBC that Mr Reid was “desperate” to show he had a handle on immigration.
