Immigration and asylum statistics released

UKBA – Quarterly statistics covering immigration and asylum were published by the Home Office today.

These statistics include asylum applications, total removals for those illegally in the UK and migration from eastern Europe for the period October to December 2009.

Figures show that applications for asylum have dropped in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 4,765 – a 30 per cent reduction compared to the same quarter in 2008, and the lowest level since the second quarter of 1992.

Decisions on asylum cases have also risen 36 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2008, with the grant rate for asylum falling to 13 per cent.

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Biometrics and surveillance will make life difficult for Immigrants

IRR – Biometrics and surveillance are set to make life virtually impossible for those without legal status here.

On 6 January 2010, skilled workers from outside the EU became the latest group to need a biometric identity card in order to extend their stay in the UK. This involves attending one of the dozen or so ‘biometric enrolment centres’ in the UK to have a digital photograph and ten digital finger scans taken. By 2011, the government aims that all foreign nationals over the age of 6, legally in the UK for more than six months, possess an identity card with digital photograph and fingerprints on it, together with details of the person’s conditions of stay, and the biometric ID card will be the official passport to employment and to services such as health, education and welfare benefits.

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Are ID cards in Britain the road to 1984?

Last month the first of seven centers due to issue ID cards for all non-EU nationals opened for business. Voluntary ID cards will be available to young people from early 2010 and to the rest of the country by the end of the year. In 2010 anyone renewing their passport will be required to provide biometric information and will automatically be entered onto the National Identity Register (NIR). By 2017 the Home Office intends that ID cards be compulsory for all citizens. Those who refuse will be fined up to £2,500.

“We have reached the point almost of paranoia about civil liberties,” was the conclusion of Times columnist David Aaronovitch with regard to the debate surrounding the introduction of these cards in the UK. Aaronovitch insists there is nothing Nineteen Eighty-Four about plans for all citizens to carry compulsory biometric identification, and for this information to be stored on a centralized government database. Hysterical left-wing comparisons to the novel are ridiculous, he insists; the Big Brother state is nothing more than “a paranoid fantasy.”

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on home affairs, is one such paranoid fantasist, saying of the government’s plans to extend the capacity of the database that, “1984 was supposed to be a warning, not a blueprint.” He can be soothed, then, as Winston Smith was, by Aaronovitch’s favorite platitude: if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
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Enough of the predictable Orwellian references. Unfortunately, though, regardless of whether you relate the planned legislation to Orwell’s literature, and regardless of whether you have something to hide, there are elements to the ID scheme which remain troubling.

The first element is cost. The estimate for ID cards has varied over the years from between £5.4 billion to £18 billion. The government has constantly changed its projected costs and admits that the total figure will be difficult to predict. Taxpayers money will be used not only to set up the centralized system, but also to set up the relevant software and scanning systems through their local authorities. There will be a charge for the biometric passport and ID card amounting to an estimated £93, and there will also be a separate charge for high street chains to “collect” the biometric data. Should the ID card holder fail to inform the government of a change to their information at any time, they will also face a £1,000 fine.

Security is a further concern. Under the proposed measures, fifty different categories of information will be stored on every person. All of this will be kept on a centralized database. Given the government’s record of protecting sensitive information – USB sticks left in pub car parks, NHS hard-drives sold on Ebay – this is worrying. More worrying still, a centralized database storing such amounts of data would mean more information than ever before would be at risk. Hackers have already shown how easy it is to gain access to the Home Office database. University professor Jeroen Van Der Beek has also demonstrated how easy it is to access and change encrypted information on a biometric passport, changing the identity of a journalist’s son to that of Bin Laden. As security expert Bruce Schneider insists, such technology will not make us safer from, but more vulnerable to, identity theft and e-crime.

A further troubling point is that none of the reasons given for the implementation of ID Cards seem to stand up to examination. The government has said they will help combat the threat of terrorism, yet the men responsible for the 9/11 and Madrid terrorist attacks all held valid identification, and Human Rights watchdog Privacy International has reported that it has found “no evidence to establish a connection between identity cards and successful anti-terrorism measures.”

The government has also said it will prevent the abuse of public services, such as benefit fraud, yet as campaigning organization NO2ID have shown, the figures for benefits claims under false identity are estimated at only 2.5 percent of the £2 billion per year in fraudulent claims. The cards would cost more than they save.

Immigration, then? The Home Office says that ID Cards will “provide an easy and secure way for legal UK residents to prove who they are.” It does not mention that asylum seekers have been required to carry ID since 2000, so the only change will be that citizens will now have to carry them too. As for illegal immigrants, as NO2ID point out, this will present no more of an obstacle to people smugglers than passports or visas (as we have seen biometric data can easily be hacked), and employers already face substantial fines for employing people illegally and yet only a minimum of prosecutions are ever made.

Perhaps the most disturbing and misleading claims on the benefits of ID cards have been made in relation to children and young people. From next year all young people will be eligible for an ID Card, and fingerprinting has already been piloted in schools across the UK. Such measures, it has been argued, will apparently protect children against anything from bullying to missing out on free school dinners to paedophilia, simply by them being able to prove who they are.

Not only is this ridiculous, it also runs the risk of making children more vulnerable. Women’s Aid have raised concerns that the storing of information as specified in the current Children’s Bill could allow mothers to be more easily tracked down by violent partners. Terry Thomas, Professor of Criminal Justice Studies, also believes that the measures greatly restrict the next generation’s right to personal freedom; that “children are being inducted into the world of the ’surveillance society’ without really knowing what it means.”

So what would it mean? Anti-terrorism laws have already restricted the right to protest and the right to privacy. We now have one CCTV camera for every 14 people and a DNA database bigger than most dictatorships. Such moves have fundamentally altered the relationship between citizen and state, and the introduction of ID cards will crystallize this: forcing citizens to provide biometric data that will be stored by the state, requiring them to prove their identity on demand, and fostering a climate in which the desire for privacy insinuates guilt.

Perhaps Aaranovitch finds all of this to be part of a paranoid fantasy but then, as the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid about your civil liberties being eroded, it doesn’t mean your civil liberties aren’t being eroded. – The Comment Factory

Foreign nationals given ID cards

The Home Office is to start issuing identity cards to people from outside the European Economic Area.

The first cards will go to students and the husbands, wives and partners of permanent residents who apply for permission to extend their stay.

Ministers want 90% of foreigners in the UK to have cards with fingerprints and personal details on, by April 2015.

The Conservatives called the cards an expensive gimmick. The Lib Dems called it a “dark day in British history”.

They will contain the fingerprints, name, date of birth, nationality and the person’s right to be in the UK.

‘Employers benefit’

Ministers predict that between 50,000 and 60,000 cards will be issued by the end of March.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “In time, identity cards for foreign nationals will replace paper documents and give employers a safe and secure way of checking a migrant’s right to work and study in the UK.”

But shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: “This is a gimmick but it’s a gimmick with a price.

“While these ‘ID cards’ won’t stop illegal immigration or terrorism, they will land the taxpayer with a multi-billion pound bill.

“At a time of economic hardship this is the last thing the taxpayer needs.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “Forcing ID cards onto guests in our country marks a dark day indeed in British history. This hugely expensive scheme will have no impact on crime, terrorism, illegal immigration or illegal working as foreign nationals already have passports with visas. This intrusion on British liberty is completely unnecessary.

“Foreign nationals, who cannot vote, are perfect guinea pigs for a government wanting to test a deeply unpopular and unworkable policy. When the rest of us are forced to carry ID cards, this scheme will prove to be a laminated Poll Tax.”- BBC