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International Migration News - Volume #8 | |
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UK: Migrants, Asylum
Migrants. The UK and France continued to debate how to deal with migrants who attempt to enter Britain by slipping onto UK-bound trucks at the French port of Calais. The UK levies fines of L2,000 ($2,800) for each migrant found on incoming trucks. France stepped-up inspections of outgoing trucks and containers, and has been finding an average of 3,000 migrants a month, and British immigration police are expected to join them. There are reportedly "thousands" of migrants in Calais waiting for an opportunity to board a truck bound for the UK. If the migrants are caught in France, they are normally ordered to leave, but not detained or expelled. Ferry company P&O Stena on December 6 hired 40 security guards to check every vehicle bound for Dover, England from Calais, France; P&O Stena takes 750,000 trucks and 1.5 million cars a year across the channel. Drivers who refuse to permit guards to use hand-held carbon dioxide gas detectors will not be allowed to have their cars or trucks taken by ferry to the UK. The use of private screeners has been condemned by some refugee groups who believe a private company should not be involved in immigration control. Two British men were sentenced to 15 and six months in jail for trying to smuggle 29 migrants in a van from France into Britain; the migrants were detected by P&O staff at Calais. Many migrants who attempt to smuggle themselves into the UK are housed in a Red Cross reception center near the coastal suburb of Sangatte, 12 km from Calais. Asylum. Beginning in April 2000, asylum applicants in the UK get housing and vouchers to buy food instead of cash assistance. The voucher system is very controversial and widely denounced by advocacy groups. Oxfam and the Refugee Council are urging the Home Office Immigration Minister, Barbara Roche, to abolish the voucher system and return to cash benefits. There were 5,890 asylum applications in April 2000; 6,970 in October; and 7,250 in November 2000. The backlog of applications is 70,000. In 1999, there were 71,160 asylum applications; in the first 11 months of 2000, there were 70,215. The Home Office estimates that it will have to build up to 50 detention centers and increase detention capacity to about 25,000 if the suggestions of the incoming Conservative government are implemented. The Immigration Service is trying to increase detention capacity from 1,000 to 3,000, but is having difficulty finding suitable locations. The Home Office estimated the cost of detaining 25,000 foreigners at L2 billion pounds in building costs and L1 billion in annual operating costs. The House of Lords in December 2000 prevented the Home Office from deporting rejected asylum seekers to Germany and France because they do not grant refugee status to persons persecuted by non-government entities. The two foreigners involved were from Somalia and Algeria, and entered the UK via Germany and France. One lord, in rejecting the return of the asylum seekers to the EU-member countries they came from, as called for by the Dublin convention, said that "The practical problem that has arisen is that different countries within the European Union interpret the [refugee] Convention differently." For more information: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200001/ldjudgmt/jd001219/adan-1.htm British immigration officials tried to deport a Ghanaian woman who is nine months pregnant as part of an effort to remove rejected asylum seekers. The number of forced removals increased by 600 in the first six months of 2000 to 7,400. Marriage. Under the Immigration and Asylum Act that goes into effect January 1, 2001, offices that register marriages are to report suspected sham marriages. Couples will have to wait at lease 16 days before they can marry, and both bride and groom must be resident in England or Wales for seven days before they can give notice of their intention to marry, then wait another 16 days before they wed. Currently, when couples apply for marriage by special license, one of them has to have been resident in England or Wales for 15 days, while the other person has to have been resident for one day. Only one person has to give notice of the intention to marry, and the couple can be married two days later. The UK will issue new rules for asylum seekers who claim persecution in their home country because they are lesbians. Gay women and feminists will have the right of appeal any decision that denies them entry to Britain. The number of asylum applications is expected to increase dramatically. Workers. Under new rules aimed at easing labor shortages, foreign undergraduates who finish college in the UK will no longer have to return home when they complete their degrees and re-apply for entry once they have found a job in the UK. Instead, their British employer can apply for a work permit for foreign graduates, who can change their status without leaving the UK. The UK in 2001 will admit 15,200 foreign farm workers, up from 10,000 in 2000, following complaints from the National Farmers' Union that there was not enough workers available to pick fruit and vegetables at the height of the season. In Berwick-upon-Tweed, some48 people - mostly Lithuanians and Latvians- were arrested for working without proper permits at Farne Salmon in Duns, Berwickshire. The workers were recruited through Ultimate Source, an employment agency based in Cambridge. Farne Salmon said it employs 500 local workers; 300 seasonal workers from surrounding towns; and 60 foreign workers. Many "gang masters" place ads in Eastern European papers seeking workers. Visas are not required to enter the UK from most Eastern European countries, and workers are typically told to say they are tourists when they arrive. If admitted, their passports are stamped: "Entry granted with no work or recourse to public funds." According to British authorities, "the gang master is the man who has traditionally organized labor for agricultural activities at certain times of the year … Often it involved people working while claiming Social Security. Now we are seeing people working illegally and the practice has spread to factories." The UK has 57 million residents, including 25 percent in Greater London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
Ron Mackenna, "The Trickle
That Soon Turned Into A Flood," Scotsman, December 20, 2000. | |
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