Government Proposes ID cards for non EU nationals
MPs reviewing the proposed Borders Bill received evidence last week which highlighted the problems employers faced in employing staff from non EU countries due to the proliferation of forged documentation and the lack of effective coordination between the respective enforcement agencies.
News article
BBC News reported that MPs were told that proposals to make Identity Cards mandatory for non EU nationals did not go far enough in stopping migrants, without work permits from working in the UK. The Government says the Borders Bill's introduction of ID cards for non-EU nationals will help to tackle illegal immigration and illegal working, and cut down on forgeries but some employers, including National Car Parks, feel it should go further and include a mandatory biometric identity documentation check of all non EU Nationals.
Critics argue that the Bill will do little to address the very real issue of the underclass of workers in the population, who present forged documents to less than scrupulous employers.
As Gordon McLardy National Car Park executive stated "Clearly we've a system which lends itself to illegal workers, the checks aren't robust enough, we don't enforce it well and clearly there's a market for false documentation." He added that the number of forged ID documents meant it was sometimes easier not to employ a non-EU national, just in case they turned out to be an illegal worker.
He also called for better information sharing between employers and different enforcement agencies, as well greater awareness among police of immigration issues. "There isn't a central database which collects this information - what you find is that illegal immigrants will go to a certain area of a city where they'll congregate because they can get forged documentation," he said.
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Date : 05-03-2007
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