IMMIGRANT AMNESTY?

by MONITOR
THERE have been two remarkable developments on immigration issues in Britain in the last two days. The first was a high court judgement that people who came to Britain between 2002-06 under a “highly skilled migrant” programme cannot now be deported because the government has changed the rules in favour of a “points-based” system. Tens of thousands of doctors, engineers and other professionals were encouraged to come to Britain without a prior offer of a job and the judge said that the terms and conditions of the original scheme should be honoured. The second development was the expectation that at a public meeting in central London last night the three main contenders to be mayor London would pledge to support a campaign calling for an amnesty for illegal immigrants with a good record who have been in Britain for at least seven years. In Boris Johnson's case this would require him to go against Conservative party policy. The campaign already has very high-level support among religious, business and community leaders despite the obvious difficulties involved in any amnesty proposal of this kind -- in the United States which has millions of illegal immigrants no workable and fair amnesty system has ever been devised despite frequent calls for one. The supporters of the London initiative believe that there are some 600'000 long-stay illegal immigrants whose ability to contribute their skills to the wider community is blocked by their illegal status.