British National Party UK Immigration News Bulletin w/c August 20th, 2007
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1. ASYLUM SEEKERS GET NEW PRIVILEGES

The contempt Labour government has for native Britons is unbelievable. There are a lot of poor people in the UK that need help and can only dream to receive a share of what asylum seekers get at the expense of UK taxpayers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=476289&in_page_id=1770

Asylum seekers at one of Britain's biggest detention centres have won the right to eat custard cream and bourbon biscuits after complaining they did not like the chocolate variety provided. The bizarre victory for hundreds of detainees at the Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire came after private sector managers caved in to a series of demands. These included the provision of extra TV channels, among them the dance music channel MTV Base and religious channels, DVD players with the technology to play discs originating in Africa and better-quality, "Tilda" brand rice. Five years ago, the centre was burned down in a riot by detainees complaining about poor conditions and it has since been rebuilt. The extended "shopping list" includes a request from female detainees for specialised glue for their hair extensions and hair relaxer – a lotion used to straighten curly hair. Women at the centre have also demanded more comfortable mattresses, more than one pillow and towel, and better-quality flip-flops. They also want to be able to buy Body Shop and Avon cosmetics from the centre's shop. Detainees have asked for bigger meal portions and for food contents to be displayed in case detainees have allergies, for pork to be added to the menu and more varied salads. They have also requested the reintroduction of tea bags, claiming the usual tea was "disgusting." Their long list of demands has come under fire from opposition MPs, who have criticised Serco – the security and tagging firm that runs the centre on behalf of the Home Office – for its handling of the situation. Confidential minutes of meetings between female detainees at Yarl's Wood and managers from Serco reveal that management has already agreed to provide music systems in every dining room, better-quality "Tilda" rice, more arts and craft materials and new coffee machines after complaints about the taste of the beverage, plus hair straighteners for people with curly hair. The minutes from the meetings – on May 31 and July 3 this year – disclose that the 405 residents, made up of women and families awaiting deportation, have access to acupuncture treatments and to a "sensory room" where they can relax. The May meeting disclosed: "There was also a request for a variation to the chocolate biscuits that are distributed every day, and could they possibly have a change like the packets they were given a couple of weeks ago (custard creams, bourbons etc)." Under "Any other business", the minutes say: "Residents requested more TV channels to include MTV Base and religious channels." Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis said last night: "The public will wonder if detainees are being put up in an immigration centre or the Ritz. "This is happening because of the utter shambles the asylum and immigration system is in under this Government. "Instead of being dealt with quickly and efficiently, detainees are kept for months on end in removal centres. "This costs the taxpayer millions, diverts urgently needed resources from other areas like the removal of foreign prisoners and leads to the kind of ludicrous situations we see here." A Serco spokesman said last night: "None of these changes has cost the taxpayer any money. We signed a contract with the Home Office and we get paid a contract fee. So, if we improve things, it will have come from our own budget. "Management at Yarl's Wood went back to their supplier and now custard creams and bourbon biscuits will be available on some days. "We make no apology for listening to the concerns of detainees and doing what we can to ensure they are held decently with humanity and dignity." A spokesman for the Home Office quango, the Borders and Immigration Agency, said: "Detention is an essential element in the effective enforcement of immigration control. "Detention centre rules recognise that detainees are not prisoners and we provide a wide range of activities and facilities to help them use their time constructively."

2. 450,000 ASYLUM SEEKERS TO BE ALLOWED TO REMAIN IN UK

http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/releases/c991300.php

It has come to the attention of leading immigration consultancy www.globalvisas.com that the Home Office is preparing to grant over 450,000 asylum seekers 'Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK (ILR)'. All cases that were pending in the system before the Immigration and Nationality Directorate obtained agency status in April 2007 are to be considered for ILR to clear the backlog. The Home Office will begin with families, many of whom have had children since arriving in the UK, increasing the exact numbers to an unknown figure. Director Liam Clifford, says: "The Borders and Immigration Agency or BIA simply does not have the resources to tackle the problem and cannot investigate each case properly so it is going to grant all the applications it can in order to clear the backlog. "In another admission of its inability to cope, the Home Office has given current instructions to prosecute anyone claiming NAS (National Asylum Support) benefits and working illegally earning over £4,000. However, this cannot be achieved because of a lack of resources. In our experience, and from what we are being told, officers now only deal with cases where people are illegally earning in excess of £20,000 p.a. Even in these cases, the Home Office and Department of Work and Pensions can only afford to slap the person on the wrist as no other options are available to them. "While the UK Home Office talks tough and claims that biometrics and joint agency co-operation will reduce immigration of low skilled migrants and terrorists, they are preparing for one of the UK’s biggest mass grants of Leave to Remain for asylum seekers in history. The Home Office has said that this will not be called an amnesty as it may create the wrong impression. However, the word is out at street level that completing the questionnaire which the Home Office is about to send out to 450,000 people and families will result in the right to stay in the UK. “With a record number of people emigrating overseas and UK PLC unable to attract the right skills it desperately requires, why does the government continue to present barriers for highly skilled people to come here, while being lenient on those immigrants who are of no benefit to our economy, and may actually burden the public purse and local council resources? “In recent years, many of our corporate clients have been finding it more difficult to deal with the immigration process for highly skilled workers and work permits, which is about to get worse with commercial partnerships, biometrics, compliance audits and off-shore visa processing. In spite of this asylum seekers can arrive with no checks or controls and receive benefits and Leave to Remain."

3. SOAMES CALLS FOR IMMIGRATION CUT

If the Conservatives were serious on this issue they would have opposed Labour immigration policy but they didn't. A Conservative government will do nothing to reverse this situation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6903222.stm

Immigration levels to the UK need to be cut to avoid "profound changes" in British society, MPs have been told. Senior Conservative MP Nicholas Soames warned there were "dangerous shoals ahead" unless the UK took action. In response the government said it was "phasing out" low-skilled migration from countries outside Europe. For the Lib Dems Nick Clegg called for a process to be established so the estimated 600,000 illegal immigrants in the UK could earn legal residence. 'Change tack' Mid-Sussex MP Mr Soames, who initiated the debate, said numbers of immigrants entering the UK each year had quadrupled since 1997. He added: "The present scale of immigration is absolutely without precedent in our history. "This rate of migration cannot be sustained without the most profound changes taking place in our society." He accused the government of failing to "get a grip" on the asylum system, trebling the number of work permits it issued since 1997, and changing the rules to make it easier for people to bring their husbands and wives in. Mr Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill and longtime friend of Prince Charles, said immigration from outside the EU should be limited to the numbers leaving the UK - about 100,000 a year. He disputed government claims about the benefits to the general economy from immigration and said the public could "sense the falsehoods" in government claims. Mr Soames proposed cutting work permits, tightening family reunion rules and also asylum applications. He said any immigration system was only as good as its power to remove people, and if necessary human rights rules needed to be looked at again. He said access to the welfare state should only come after people had contributed to it for five years to "defuse the very strong sense of grievance". 'Political classes' "Muddling on" would risk adding to the pressure building in society, he said. Mr Soames stressed that his proposals were not racist, saying they would apply as much, say, to the US as to Uganda. He said free movement of people within the EU would continue but he did not think that would be a long term problem as living standards rose in new member states. During the Westminster Hall debate, ex-Labour minister Frank Field, said the "political classes" had failed to listen to people's legitimate concerns about the level of immigration. He added: "If we do not change tack very quickly, very smartly on this issue then the sense of our national identity may be lost." He questioned the free movement of people around Europe and said one million people coming in from eastern Europe was "unsustainable". 'Without precedent' But Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said he did not see how it was possible to "turn off the tap" of people coming in to the UK. He added that there should be a process for illegal immigrants to earn legal residence - saying it was "fanciful" to think that the estimated 600,000 illegal immigrants in the UK could be deported. For the Tories, shadow immigration minister Damian Green said his party would set an annual limit on the number of immigrants which would change with the country's economic requirements, and urged the government to set up a border police. Immigration minister Liam Byrne said world migration had increased hugely, and said there were many other countries who have had more immigrants than the UK. He accepted there was a "social impact" as well as an economic one and said the new points based work permit system was being brought into force. He also highlighted new government systems that he said would track the majority of migrants by 2009.

4. AMNESTY URGED FOR 500,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/15/nmigrants115.xml

Half a million immigrants working illegally in Britain should be allowed to stay, according to a thinktank with close links to Downing Street. A report published today by the influential Institute for Public Policy Research argues that finding and forcibly deporting all Britain's illegal workers would cost £4.7 billion and take 30 years. The study says if these migrants were allowed to stay they would pay £1 billion a year in tax to the Treasury. The number living illegally in the UK is thought to have soared in recent years, with the Government accused of failing to police borders adequately. The pressure group MigrationWatch UK calculates that there are up to 870,000 illegal immigrants in Britain, but the Government believes there are no more than 570,000. The IPPR's report threatens to divide ministers. Last week, Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, repeated earlier Government pledges not to allow an amnesty for illegal migrants, but some Cabinet ministers back the idea. Danny Sriskandarajah, the IPPR's head of migration and equalities, called on Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to support it. "Our economy would shrink and we would notice it in uncleaned offices, dirty streets and unstaffed pubs and clubs if we tried to deport hundreds of thousands of people," he said. "So we have a choice: make people live in the shadows, exploited and fearful of the future... or bring them into the mainstream, to pay taxes and live an honest life." The report also recommends that unauthorised migrants who can show they have been working and contributing to the UK should be given a two-year work permit, with their families allowed to remain. A spokesman for the Home Office said: "An amnesty for immigrants illegally would simply create a strong pull for waves of illegal migration." The amnesty call comes as Home Office sources reveal that since the introduction of a sophisticated fingerprinting system last September more than 4,000 deported foreigners have been caught trying to re-enter Britain illegally. Officials are "astonished" by the number of failed asylum seekers and bogus work permit applicants caught using the "biometric" visas system. But Damian Green, shadow immigration minister, fears they represent the "tip of the iceberg". The £39 million system has been introduced at British embassies and consulates in only 80 of the 150 countries intended to be involved. The biometrics programme requires all UK visa applicants to provide fingerprints before leaving their home country. Immigration officials check the prints against those taken from failed asylum seekers who have already been deported. A spokesman for the Home Office said: "Biometric visas will be rolled out to all countries by March next year."

5. RURAL MIGRANT WORKERS 'DRIVE OUT YOUNG'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/17/nrural117.xml

Migrant workers from Eastern Europe are flooding the rural labour market and forcing young people to leave the countryside in search of work, a Government advisory body warns today. The number of migrants working in the countryside has increased by 200 per cent in three years, with many seeking employment in agriculture, manufacturing, hotels and retail, according to a major report by the Commission for Rural Communities. This comes amid a long-term decline in the number of young people living in rural areas. In the last two decades the number of people aged between 15 and 29 in the countryside has dropped by 400,000. The report, entitled State of the Countryside 2007, found much to commend country life over urban life including full employment, less pollution, better diet and fewer cases of stress and mental illness. But the researchers raised concerns that the influx of foreign workers, following the accession of eight former Soviet-bloc countries to the European Union, was placing a great strain on local schools and transport and posing problems for young country people. About 120,000 migrant workers registered to work in rural areas between May 2004 and Sept 2006. "Urban areas are used to dealing with large numbers of migrants but rural areas are not," said a spokesman for the commission. "Young people expect to pick up fruit-picking jobs but these are taken by 'A8' migrant workers. There are certainly fewer job opportunities available for young people because of very high rates of immigration." Between 2002/3 and 2005/6 rural local authorities saw a 209 per cent growth in the numbers of non-UK migrant workers, based on National Insurance registrations. At the same time there was a 67 per cent increase in their numbers in urban authorities, although they had four times more migrant workers in absolute numbers. The biggest rural rise in migrant workers was in Herefordshire, with a tenfold increase. North Wiltshire had the smallest with 50 per cent. The commission said the money the Government gave town halls for supporting immigrants was based on statistics that were several years out of date. "We would like to see local authorities given a fairer deal in terms of their ability to cope," said the spokesman. Dr Stuart Burgess, chairman of the commission and the Government's rural advocate, said: "Much more needs to be done to retain young people and provide them with opportunities and incentives." A spokesman for the Department for Food and Rural Affairs said the exodus was due to young people seeking urban amenities, education and cheaper housing.

6. MYSTERY OF THE MISSING OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Despite assurances from Labour spin doctors here is another example on how immigration to Britain is out of control.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article2073157.ece

Thousands of university places were offered last year to overseas applicants who failed to enrol, raising concerns that the student visa system is being abused. Twenty-one out of 100 universities contacted by The Times confirmed that 11,077 foreign students who accepted places had failed to turn up. They included the universities of Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol and Glasgow Caledonian. Eight institutions said that in the past three years nearly 30,000 foreign students had accepted an offer but had never showed up. Universities able to provide figures dating back to 2004 included Birmingham, Plymouth and Nottingham. At 8,000, Northumbria University had the most missing students over three years. The figures have prompted fears that the system is being used as a short cut for people wishing to obtain visas to enter Britain for other reasons. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that The Times’s research “shows that the weaknesses in our immigration control and security do not just apply to doctors, as has been highlighted in the aftermath of the recent attempted terror attacks, but that bogus student applications are an even bigger loophole. “Previous home secretaries have all made tough promises but these figures show they have simply failed to act.” The study follows the news that 3,064 places assigned to foreign scholars at Portsmouth University since 2004 have been left unfilled. Universities say that there may be a number of reasons why students who have agreed to places fail to materialise. According to academics, it is normal for applicants to apply to and be accepted by a variety of institutions before making their final decisions. Some students may not inform universities that they intend to study elsewhere. Universities, however, often do not pass on details of missing students to the Home Office. This means that neither the Government nor the universities keep track of absent students. Rebecca Bunting, Pro Vice-Chancellor at Portsmouth, said that her university informed the Home Office twice a month about students who did not arrive or whose status changed. “The University of Portsmouth is one of the few higher education institutions to adopt this protocol as standard practice,” she said. The Home Office said that some institutions did volunteer information about students who did not enrol or discontinued their studies and that this was followed up by officials. Among the missing students at Portsmouth, 3 are from from Iran, 16 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from Iraq and 379 from Pakistan. At present, foreigners wishing to study here may apply for student visas once they have accepted one or more offers. But the current system does not automatically record whether they start their courses. The Government hopes to tackle this problem with a points-based immigration system that will introduce institution-specific visas and require universities routinely to submit names of missing foreign students to the Home Office. But this will not be until 2009. A spokesman for the Border and Immigration Agency at the Home Office said: “The majority of international students are genuine and bring substantial economic benefits to the UK, contributing some £5 billion a year to our economy. The fact that foreign students choose not to take up positions at universities is not evidence of substantial abuse.” Statistics from the Home Office show that in 2005-06 nearly 200,000 people were issued with a student visa. Last year it emerged that that a Chinese gangmaster convicted of the manslaughter of the cockle pickers who died in 2004 had enrolled at colleges in London and Manchester in order to secure an extended student visa. Rather than study, Lin Liang Ren started renting cheap Liverpool properties to house Chinese people sent from London.

7. VOTING RESTRICTIONS URGED IN NORWAY

Just as the BNP in Britain aims to ensure the interests of native Britons take first place in all policy matters, the Progress Party is working to preserve the cultural identity of Norwegians by opposing mass immigration and multiculturalism and give priority to the interests of native Norwegians.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1882019.ece

Only Norwegian citizens are eligible to vote in national elections, but anyone legally residing in the country for three years can vote in local elections. The Progress Party, also known for its restrictive immigration policies, wants to usher in citizenship requirements for local elections as well, reports Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). With local elections looming in September, the Progress Party also wants to restrict voting rights to those who can pass written exams in the Norwegian language and general knowledge of the country. Per Willy Amundsen, the party's spokesman on immigration issues, said that proposed exams are meant to make sure that non-Norwegian voters really understand the issues at stake. The Socialist Left Party (SV) dismissed the Progress Party's proposal as "discriminatory." A party spokesman told NRK that voters not familiar with Norwegian should rather be given extra information on the issues, instead of being excluded from participation. Ballots in Norway are printed only in Norwegian, but SV has prepared election campaign material in eight different languages in advance of the September elections. SV also offers both English and Spanish versions of its web site. Curiously, the Progress Party also offers foreign-language versions of its web sitein English, German and French, while several of its rivals don't. The Labour and Liberal parties offer an English web site, but neither the Center Party, the Christian Democrats nor the Conservatives offer information in any foreign language. The Center Party, best known for championing support to Norway's farmers and outlying districts at the expense of its cities, offers a "Sami" link, but it, too, is in Norwegian.

8. THAI MAN JAILED AFTER TWICE USING FALSE PASSPORT TO ENTER NEW ZEALAND

If only we had a judge like that in this country.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10452044

A Thai man thrown out of New Zealand as an overstayer twice returned to the country using a false passport, a court was told yesterday. Kamphon Singwee, 24, faced two charges of fraudulently providing a passport and four charges of providing false information to immigration officers, the Marlborough Express reported. Singwee, also known as Somdet Chatae, pleaded guilty to all charges in Blenheim District Court and was jailed for 16 months. The court was told Singwee visited New Zealand in March 2002 as a tourist and was allowed to extend his stay after applying for a work permit. He then tried to claim refugee status but was returned to Thailand in November, 2004, as an overstayer. On October 28, 2005, Singwee returned to New Zealand with a work permit for Somdet Chatae and a passport under the same name. Returning to Thailand for a short time, he used the false passport to return to New Zealand in January 2006. When applying for work permits he supplied immigration staff on four occasions with false information about Somdet Chatae. Sam Houliston, lawyer for the Department of Labour, said Singwee's actions were an "official challenge" to the integrity of the country's immigration system. Singwee's lawyer Bryony Senior said while his offending could not be justified, she wondered if anyone in the court could comprehend the poverty Singwee faced in Thailand. In jailing Singwee Judge David McKegg said "the opportunity to live and work in New Zealand is a privilege, not a right".

9. ISRAEL GETS TOUGH ON SUDANESE REFUGEES

Israel already has a lot of problems and an influx of asylum seekers is the last thing they need.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-refugees12jul12,1,6455044.story

The war in his native Sudan had been hellish, his years as a refugee in Egypt not much better. So with his 2-year-old daughter in his arms and his pregnant wife at his side, William followed Bedouin smugglers on a perilous trek across the desert border into Israel. Three weeks after crossing illegally, the family found temporary refuge at this communal farm overlooking the verdant Carmel mountains. For the first time in years, William thought, life will be better. "I know there are human rights in Israel and other countries," said the 30-year-old asylum seeker, who asked that his full name not be used to protect family members in his war-torn homeland. "In Egypt, there aren't any." But now William and hundreds like him may be forced to return to Egypt. In a move that some human rights groups warn could endanger lives, Israel is cracking down on a recent influx of illegal immigrants over its 140-mile border with Egypt. About 2,800 people, mostly from Africa, have crossed illegally into Israel in recent years, officials say. Sudanese make up the largest group, which consists of 1,160 asylum seekers who endured months or years of harassment in Egypt. Large numbers of Sudanese began reaching Israel in May as word spread of job opportunities. Of the Sudanese, 220 are Muslims from the Darfur region, which has been gripped by war since early 2003. The rest, including William and his family, come from the predominantly animist and Christian southern Sudan, where a 21-year conflict that ended in 2005 left about 2 million dead and twice as many displaced. Israel's army has been ordered to turn back anyone attempting to cross the border illegally and to deport to Egypt most of the border jumpers already in the country. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said this week that the deportations would begin as soon as a full list of the refugees was compiled. The government did not say whether newcomers would be able to apply for asylum, although it agreed to consider allowing a small portion of the refugees from Darfur to stay and receive public assistance. Israeli officials said they had received assurances from Egypt regarding the safety of those being sent back. But human rights organizations said such a pledge does not guarantee that Egypt won't send the refugees back to Sudan, where their lives are at risk. Some legal experts said the government's plan to turn back people at the border without examining their claims went against customary international law. They also warned that those sent back could face imprisonment and torture in Egypt for leaving illegally. Anat Ben-Dor heads a legal aid clinic at Tel Aviv University that has helped win the release of about 300 Sudanese refugees from Israeli prisons in the last year. The asylum seekers have little confidence in what Egypt can offer them, she said. "They don't get work rights, their children don't get into schools, there are no medical services," she said. "It's like being in an eternal limbo and being subject to very racist treatment because of the color of their skin." The Israeli government views most of the newcomers as economic migrants. But critics of the clampdown say they expect more understanding from a state whose creation was driven by the historic persecution of Jews that culminated in the Holocaust. Some have pointed out that Olmert's parents took refuge in China in the early 1900s to escape persecution in Russia. The trickle of Sudanese into Israel began to accelerate after riot police broke up a sit-in they staged in Cairo in 2005 to press demands for asylum. Among the protesters was William, who barely survived a head injury inflicted by police in the crackdown, which ended with at least 27 Sudanese dead. That's when he resolved to leave. William told his story in halting English, sitting in the shade of pine trees at the kibbutz on a hot afternoon. In Sudan, William said, he eluded kidnapping by a militia group that looted his southern village, killed his father and separated him from the rest of his family. From there he fled to the capital, Khartoum, and spent years in a refugee camp before escaping to Egypt in 2000, where he married. Life in Egypt was less violent but still intolerable, William said. The $50 he earned monthly from a 12-hour-a-day job cleaning a restaurant wasn't enough to sustain his family. There was no money to pay for his pregnant wife's medical care. He said he was harassed by Egyptians in what he attributes to racism against darker-skinned Sudanese. Last month, he and his family tired of waiting for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle them abroad. They took a bus to the Sinai desert, where he paid smugglers to guide them into Israel. The journey was risky. Some Sudanese refugees here said Egyptian soldiers shot at them to try to prevent them from leaving the country illegally. Some who were caught said the soldiers beat them. Until May, an average of seven Sudanese immigrants arrived in Israel a month, according to Hotline for Migrant Workers, an Israeli volunteer group. Authorities would jail the men and turn the women and children over to volunteer groups for shelter while their asylum claims were considered. But in May and June, more than 700 Sudanese arrived. With no room in prisons, immigration authorities stopped holding the men and began depositing them and their families on the streets of Beersheba in southern Israel. Local volunteers, mostly university students, helped find them places to stay. Some have been taken in by communal farms or put up at hotels. The lucky ones have found work at Red Sea resort hotels in Eilat. On the grassy poolside of the Desert Inn in Beersheba, where dozens of Sudanese families have found temporary sanctuary, Anthony said he was afraid of being forced to return to Egypt. "They don't like us — some of us have been beaten," said the father of four, who serves as the unofficial spokesman for the group at the hotel. He declined to give his last name. "Before we reach Egypt, let the Israeli government know this: If they take us away, we will try to come back, even if we die at the border," he said.

10. RECOMMENDED READING:

"Overcrowded Britain" by Ashley Mote - an independent MEP:

Foreword by Lord Stoddart of Swindon Postscript by Trevor Colman, former police superintendent, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Political correctness has hi-jacked our freedom to discuss one of the burning issues of the day - immigration. OverCrowded Britain will inevitably be condemned by the politically-correct, few of whom, Ashley Mote suggests, will bother to read it first. Which is why he argues for a full, open and – if necessary – controversial debate on immigration.
http://www.bnp.org.uk/shopping/excalibur/item.php?id=691