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Illegal immigrants set to gather next month to convince Government to grant them resident status

Immigration campaigners are calling on the Government to allow people who have been illegally residing in the UK for the past four years and are of good standing to apply for the right to remain.

The campaign has the support of trade unions and churches across the country. The organisers believe that regularisation would make it easier to police undesirable elements in British society and help to enforce a stricter immigration policy.

Amnesties have traditionally been granted by incoming Governments. Campaigners are hoping Chancellor Gordon Brown will put it at the top of the agenda when he becomes Prime Minister. MP Jon Cruddas, who is hoping to become deputy leader of the Labour party, is firmly backing the call for an amnesty.

Every day, 34 year-old Jack breaks the law, but he is not a criminal.

Jack (not his real name) is an illegal migrant from the Ivory Coast and has been in the UK for almost seven years.

He works 59 hours a week in two jobs, as a cleaner in London’s financial district, and at a national supermarket. When he’s not working, he’s studying for a public health degree by distance learning.

He already has a degree in pharmacy management from his homeland, but it’s been reduced to near uselessness in the UK.

STEREOTYPE

However, Jack doesn’t fit the stereotype of an illegal migrant too scared to return to his country of origin.

He entered the UK legally and simply overstayed his six-month visa.

He explained: “I came to study English. I was planning to go back initially, but problems in my country stopped me from going back. I was doing well in Ivory Coast. I had a business there and uncertainty here but I thought the financial situation here would be better than at home.”

When war broke out in the Ivory Coast, he considered applying for asylum but dismissed the idea.

“I thought about applying for asylum at one point. Maybe if I did then it would have been easier for me,” he said ruefully.

“Some of my friends are really afraid to be sent back home. They say their life will be over if they are caught.”

Jack found work as a porter getting paid cash-in-hand, earning less than the minimum wage.

He often had to hide in the bedroom he shared with a friend and his wife as the landlord was unaware of his presence.

“They didn’t tell the landlord I was coming to stay. They tried to hide me in the room. I couldn’t go into the kitchen in case the landlord saw me. That was really depressing for me,” he recalled.

With the constant fear of discovery hanging over his head, he stopped working for three months.

“The pressure was just too much,” he explained.

When he did return to work, he used a friend’s National Insurance number to land a job cleaning trains in London.

Jack spent three years in that job, earning exactly the minimum wage.

He eventually secured his present two jobs.

Although he has been able to get work, Jack, a committed Christian, has to ensure that he never falls foul of the law, as any indiscretion could see him deported from Britain.

Jack is just one of thousands of people living and working illegally in the UK.

The Home Office has put the upper limit of illegal migrants at 570,000, however immigration minister Liam Byrne recently refused to give a figure to parliament.

Austen Ivereigh of the Citizens Organising Foundation (COF) said: “We know that there are 220,000 rejected asylum seekers who have not left the UK. Then there is around another 150,000 economic migrants, and a lot of them look legal, but they are not.”

COF has launched a year-long campaign to raise awareness of the plight of illegal migrants.

The Strangers Into Citizens campaign by COF draws on a coalition of support from London and Birmingham. The organisation is calling on the government to allow people in the UK for the past four years, who are competent in English and have no serious criminal record or links to undesirable groups, to be allowed to apply for the right to remain.

OUTCRY

The idea of an amnesty was raised by former home secretary David Blunkett in 2003 and present immigration minister Byrne early last year, but was shot down after an outcry from the right wing press.

The Home Office has since refused to consider the idea.

Despite this, calls for an amnesty have won massive support.

In a recent interview with The Voice, deputy leader hopeful Jon Cruddas said an amnesty was an integral part of his campaign.

“I think we should say 'look we're going to have an amnesty'. We're going to regularise the status of these people under certain conditions because they are making a massive contribution. That is a very difficult thing for a politician to say, but it is exactly the sort of thing that we should be saying.”

The Home Office has already admitted that it would take 25 years to deport all illegal migrants.

One study noted that even if it was possible to deport the entire undocumented population, it would cost £4.7bn, and blow a hole in the economy.

However, continuing illegality of so many people costs the UK vast amounts.

A report by the National Crime Intelligence Service published on October 2, 2006 summarises the total loss to the Exchequer from unpaid tax and NI contributions to be as much as £3.3 billion – enough to build 132 schools or 13 hospitals.

The extra fiscal revenue from taxes would result in a net gain to the Exchequer of between £500m to £1bn, according to estimates from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The COF campaign has the support of trade unions and churches across the country. The organisers believe that regularisation would make it easier to police undesirable elements in British society and help to enforce a stricter immigration policy.

Amnesties have traditionally been granted by incoming governments, making it a ripe issue for chancellor Gordon Brown when he succeeds as prime minister. However, a spokesperson for Brown refused to speculate on the matter.

The Tories have also refused to be drawn on the issue. The current Conservative policy is that it ‘would be irresponsible’ to hold an amnesty, but it is unclear whether that would change if leader David Cameron became PM.

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Menzies Campbell told The Voice: “I’m very anxious about amnesties. I think you should deal with people properly. On an amnesty, there may be people who, as it were, slip through the net.

EFFICIENT

“There may be much less deserving cases than people waiting outside. We have to have a system which is sufficiently efficient as to recognise those cases which are genuinely deserving. You can get priority based on entitlement rather than on the accident of your presence.”

A huge part of the COF campaign is to change public opinion around holding an amnesty.

Immigration, a topic regularly hijacked by right wing tabloids, has become one of the most contentious issues in British politics today.

In March, there is to be an assembly in Birmingham followed by a Mass for migrant workers in May at Westminster Cathedral.

COF believes that an amnesty to regularise illegal migrants like Jack would give them the legal right to work, pay taxes and live freely.

“People like Jack are here in the hundreds of thousands,” explained Ivereigh.

“Traffickers thrive on those in that situation. There is a whole area of people not protected by the law or able to use it. They should be able to phone the police to report crimes, but they are afraid to do so.”

He continued: “There is a resonance with the slave trade. It’s about setting people free. At the moment, the law and reality are out of sync. They need to be brought back into sync.”

Ivereigh added: “The idea that illegal migrants take jobs defies economics. Migrants create jobs, not take them.”

Like many other illegal migrants, Jack completely understands the fears of the British public around an amnesty.

He said: “I understand people’s opinion. It’s not fair to be illegal in other people’s country. That’s for the safety of British people. Every country has the right to know who is living in their borders but most of those who are here are working. They are not claiming housing or benefits. I am breaking the law, but I am not a criminal.”

However, all Jack wants is to be free.

“The worst thing is not being able to travel. My friend’s mum died and he wasn’t able to go back. I think about that sometimes. I don’t know what I would do if that happened to me.”

He added: “I want to be able to travel and pay taxes properly and get a mortgage. I want to be legal, to be free like other people.”

Published: 05 February 2007
Issue: 1255

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