One sunny morning this summer, some of my officers assisted the UK Border Agency executing a warrant at a local business premise. The result is that five Pakistani men were arrested. Each of the five had entered this country on six month visas allegedly to visit relatives whilst on holiday. All five had stayed in this country for between two and five years and were living and working here. They were brought to the local police station where they were interviewed . It was established that they had all overstayed their visas and were working in this country illegally. They were then removed to an immigration detention centre.
You may be forgiven for assuming that all five would be put on a plane back to Pakistan within days. I assumed that is what happened, but I bumped into one of the Border Agency officers and got an update. At the detention centre all five applied for leave to remain in the UK and appealed against their deportation. One was given leave to remain, the other four were released and told to report to their local police station daily until their appeal was heard. The four disappeared and have have not been seen nor heard of since.
More recently I spent two days at an international airport working with the UK Border Agency. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. We have people arriving in this country every day who are obviously intending to stay or work. We interview them. They lie. They are evasive. But nine times out of ten we let them in anyway as we cannot prove what we believe. Occasionally we refuse them entry and sometimes they demand asylum. Sometimes they appeal against refusal of entry and we just let them in anyway because the appeal process is expensive and loaded in favour of the immigrant.
I am not against all immigration. Our transport system, our health service and, more recently our service industry have been saved by immigration. It is just a shame that we have more than one million unemployed who do not have the social skills, or any other skills, to fill these gaps.
Currently, for every illegal immigrant the UK Border Force detain only one in three is actually deported. The rest are given asylum or permission to remain or just disappear into the black economy.
If we are going to get tough on immigration we need a very simple system. If we think you might be bogus you go back from whence you came. No appeal, and no asylum, unless you are from a country on a list with serious human rights issues. If you overstay your welcome, you are on the next flight home. No appeal, no discussion. The current system is a complete joke and is being abused and capitalized upon.
I have a fair bit of experience in the immigration sector - all I can say is that it makes our concerns about the police/CJS/CPS/prisons look like nothing in comparison.
ReplyDeleteUKBA is run as a business whereby the APPEARANCE of taking action is vital, and where minimising costs and complaints from brit-cits at the border is far more important than actually keeping pisstakers out.
Immigration officers were already a dispirited lot - now that they are facing cuts in numbers and conditions like us, their performance is hardly likely to improve.
In-country enforcement is a massive joke - just a mechanism whereby UKBA can keep up a stream of 'good news stories' to maintain the illusion of tackling the million-plus illegals in the UK.
It is a problem. Only this morning I was in Huddersfield Market to overhear a small group of Whites muttering in English.
ReplyDeleteI am at a loss to know how they are sneaking in.
What's the point of having laws if you're not going to enforce them properly?
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why this show is pretty popular down here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJnISVZhrcw&feature=related
One complaint illegal immigration should be a seperate issue from immigration. One is about enforcing the law the other how many people are allowed in here.
ReplyDeletePersonally I would rather let in 10 legals than allow 1 illegal stay here.
One solution for illegals would be to lock them up while we decide what to with them.
Of course this would be expensive but not if we offshored it to somewhere like the Ukraine.
What you could do is send a planeload a day to the center and keep them there until we decide what to do with them. (Particularly good for those who refuse to say where they are from).
Of course when word of this new strict policy gets around, people who want to illegally enter a western country will go somewhere else. The first day we will send a jumbo jet load of illegals to the centers in the Ukraine within years it will be less than 10 and the center's staff will be trying to encourage another country to work with them.
It would be the cheapest way to get the law enforced.
UKBA has invested a lot in Comms to try and give the impression that they enforce the law. There's Border Force on TV and constant stories in local newspapers about how they've arrested two illegals or fined a company for employing illegals.
ReplyDeleteThe statistics tell another story....http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/immigration-brief-q2-2011/removals
Removals are going down at an alarming rate, along with staff cuts. The ***t is going to hit the fan big time soon.
zorro
'more recently our service industry have been saved by immigration.'....That is because we pay people to sit on their arses all day. Funnily enough, similar jobs used to be done by British people/students before this large scale immigration.
ReplyDeletezorro
In fact, to show how much of a con this enforcement effort is, all you have to do is look at the removal statistics in the link above. UKBA claims to have increased their removals in the last year or two but they only do that by including 'other voluntary departures'. They are classed as follows on page 49 of the 'User Guide to Home Office Immigration Statistics' - 'People who it has been established left the United Kingdom without informing the immigration authorities are identified through data-matching exercises. Such individuals can be identified at embarkation controls, from subsequent visa applications or from passenger information supplied by airlines through the e-borders system.' So basically they are claiming removals for when their caseworking systems are doing what they should have been doing all along - controlling who comes in and out of the country!!
ReplyDeletezorro
I agree entirely Zorro. Our failed social policies, education system and justice system have produced one million (and rising) unemployed inadequates who we pay to house, feed, cloth and provide with cars and mobile phones, cigarettes, alcohol and other essentials.
ReplyDeleteThese inadequates don't wish to work and could not work in the service sector, which requires at least some degree of civility, motivation and articulation. We would not have a service sector if it were not for Eastern Europeans.
The real answer is that we change our failing policies and produce young people that are fit for work.
You are starting from the premise that the government wants to halt illegal immigration. Perhaps few people realise that the current levels of immigration, introduced by Labour in 1997, are truly epic and comparable with any of the historical mass migrations and population replacements anywhere in the world. See Predicted population of Britain. What makes me laugh is that people continue voting Labour and Lib Dem when these parties support this change. They are doing it on purpose. See Tony Blair defends open door..
ReplyDeleteIf you can't show what you believe, why do you believe it? Should we also convict in theft, rape, and murder cases the same way? If you think you're psychic, go win $1 million from James Randi. Otherwise, you have to give the benefit of the doubt. Better 100 people planning to overstay is admitted than one honest entrant be wrongly denied. If you disagree, let's start with you as the wrongly convicted one...
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