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Asylum: a strategy emerges
David Blunkett claims the crisis is over - Britain is ready for legal, managed migration. But for some there is a tough message
Alan Travis and Ian Black in Brussels
Wednesday February 25, 2004
The Guardian
Tens of thousands of Polish, Czech and other eastern Europeans who have been working and living illicitly in Britain, some for many years, are to be given an amnesty in all but name from May 1, the Home Office revealed yesterday.
The immigration minister, Beverley Hughes, said that if they "turn legit" under the new migrant workers_ registration scheme, they will not face any retribution. "They have a right to be here and there is no need for them to carry on working illegally," she said.
The generous attempt to provide tens of thousands of illegal migrants with a route out of Britain_s "hidden economy" comes as new official figures backed up ministers_ claims to have drawn the sting out of the asylum crisis - albeit at a cost that has now reached £2bn a year.
New asylum applications to Britain in 2003 dropped by 41% from 103,080 in 2002 to 61,050 last year, compared with 19% across Europe.
Home Office figures published yesterday show that over the past five years the backlog of asylum cases has fallen from more than 140,000 waiting more than 18 months for a decision to 24,500 in December, with 80% getting an initial decision in two months.
The home secretary, David Blunkett, has made clear that he believes it is only by getting to grips with the asylum crisis that the country is willing to hear the case for opening up legal routes for new migrants.
"We need legal, managed, economic migration, and we need it across the board in terms of the kind of require ments of our economy. We need to do it, and we are now moving to a position where that is being recognised and that is possible," the home secretary told the Guardian.
The decision to allow tens of thousands of eastern Europeans to "regularise" their position is one element in Mr Blunkett_s new approach that is driven by the need to meet key labour shortages in Britain_s economy, particularly in areas such as construction, catering and hospitality.
A similar deal may be hammered out for thousands more illegal workers from outside Europe as part of the introduction of identity cards.
This drive to open new legal routes for migration has seen the number of work permits double to nearly 200,000 a year, and is designed to bring in new migrants not only from Europe but across the world to Britain.
The booming economy, particularly in the south-east of England, has more than 500,000 vacancies.
A particular campaign is to be mounted to attract people to Scotland, where the economy is faltering because of skill shortages and the population is in danger of falling below 5 million for the first time in years.
The message will be underlined on Thursday when Prince Charles is present at north London_s Brent town hall for the first "citizenship" ceremony for immigrants.
New classes in English language skills and citizenship will follow later in the year as part of a scheme to ensure that the infusion of labour does not threaten community cohesion and solidarity.
Ireland last night joined Britain in restricting access to its welfare system by migrants from the eight former communist countries joining the EU in May.
The social and family affairs minister, Mary Coughlan, said the u-turn was inevitable once Britain announced its benefit restrictions on Monday.
The Irish move came as Romano Prodi, president of the European commission, expressed concern yesterday about restrictions in Britain and elsewhere on workers from new EU member states.
Brussels said it was looking into whether the measures announced by Mr Blunkett on Monday were compatible with EU law. The key question is whether arrangements which deny workers from eastern Europe benefits while granting them to others are discriminatory. The Home Office said its legal advice showed the plans complied with EU treaties.
The annual asylum statistics published yesterday show that asylum applications across Europe fell last year from 386,000 to 308,000.
Amnesty International highlighted the fact that 16,070 initial rejections in Britain were overturned on appeal last year as evidence of a dramatic rise in wrong decisions by the UK_s immigration officers.
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