Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Illegal immigrants being used as football in Westminster. Beverley Hughes was busy pushing the big lie at the Home Affairs Committee yesterday. Apparently I need an ID Card to prove that I'm entitled to work. Apparently, my having a card to prove I'm entitled to work will stop employers taking on illegal workers, presumerably this will stop those employers who stop on the motorway with a truck and take people off to do some nasty simple work for cash in hand.
Although the Home Office luckily have an actual case to base their statements on in this case, so much of the arguments seem to be based on the Home Office saying "we have no idea if this is a problem in any way, ID Cards will help us find out if it is a problem".
The Home Office as a department seem to have formed behind Blunkett's banner on this issue, the chair John Denham, a former H.O. minister, asked such impartial questions as "Isn't the truth that until there is a robust and reliable system of entitlement cards that people have to show and employers can rely on... we are going to continue to have abuse?" as though Ms. Hughes was going to reply "actually, no, but my boss is quite keen and you know what he's like when he gets an idea in his head".
"At the moment there isn't a single robust form of identification that also gives proof of right to work," she said.
It's my right to work? I thought it was a responsibility to work. My right would be to expect fair treatment and pay at work surely? And what about national insurance cards? They seem to have been sufficient for the last fifty years.
Now, a truly scary closing bit from the article:
Ex-Tory cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe said "nothing short of detention" would stop illegal workers from disappearing.
But Mrs Hughes urged her to "get real".
"If you are seriously suggesting that every person that we apprehend could be detained... you are going to need a very, very large expansion, at great expense, of the detention estate."
The minister said this was not a reasonable demand on resources and the government's other priorities.
The Government wouldn't oppose locking immigrants up en masse on ethical or humanitarian grounds, purely that it would cost them too much to do so.
Although the Home Office luckily have an actual case to base their statements on in this case, so much of the arguments seem to be based on the Home Office saying "we have no idea if this is a problem in any way, ID Cards will help us find out if it is a problem".
The Home Office as a department seem to have formed behind Blunkett's banner on this issue, the chair John Denham, a former H.O. minister, asked such impartial questions as "Isn't the truth that until there is a robust and reliable system of entitlement cards that people have to show and employers can rely on... we are going to continue to have abuse?" as though Ms. Hughes was going to reply "actually, no, but my boss is quite keen and you know what he's like when he gets an idea in his head".
"At the moment there isn't a single robust form of identification that also gives proof of right to work," she said.
It's my right to work? I thought it was a responsibility to work. My right would be to expect fair treatment and pay at work surely? And what about national insurance cards? They seem to have been sufficient for the last fifty years.
Now, a truly scary closing bit from the article:
Ex-Tory cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe said "nothing short of detention" would stop illegal workers from disappearing.
But Mrs Hughes urged her to "get real".
"If you are seriously suggesting that every person that we apprehend could be detained... you are going to need a very, very large expansion, at great expense, of the detention estate."
The minister said this was not a reasonable demand on resources and the government's other priorities.
The Government wouldn't oppose locking immigrants up en masse on ethical or humanitarian grounds, purely that it would cost them too much to do so.
