Britain toughens immigration stance

To police on patrol near the tunnel linking Britain and France, it's a familiar story: As many as 15 times a day, citizens report seeing people riding in the backs of trucks, or wandering on the shoulder of the motorway.

The nomads, who are arrested and sent to immigration centers, are part of a flood of illegal immigrants finding their way into Britain. Its liberal asylum laws have for years made it a magnet for the world's oppressed and impoverished.

But because of the number of migrants, which is causing public outcry at home and in France, at the other end of the tunnel, Britain is beginning to harden its stance on immigrants. On Wednesday, Britain sent an Afghan family back to Germany, where they had first tried to gain asylum two years ago.

Yet Britain is simply falling in line with much of Western Europe. "There is absolutely no doubt that Britain's policy on immigration has been harmonized with the rest of the European Union," says analyst Jenny Bourne of the Institute of Race Relations, an independent think tank in London. From the Netherlands and France, where last spring's elections resulted in right-leaning governments, to Denmark and Germany, which are implementing new anti-immigration laws, the welcome mat is being taken in.

Now Britain and France are cooperating to discourage migrants. Since the English Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, immigration has been a point of contention between the two countries. In northern France, two miles from the tunnel entrance stands the Sangatte camp, a Red Cross refugee center that houses 1,500 refugees – 500 from Afghanistan and 1,000 Kurds from Iraq. Britain says that France does little to stop the mainly young men, who make nightly attempts to board trains and trucks bound for Britain. The French say the British need to make their side less attractive to migrants.

In a deal struck last month, France said it would shut the camp by March if Britain toughens its policies on illegal immigrants. The French want Britain to introduce an equivalent of the French identity card, being debated in Britain as an "entitlement" card, and to create accommodation centers to house asylum seekers while their claims are being processed.

A new bill under debate in Parliament aims to put an end to what Home Secretary David Blunkett calls "the real difficulty of people using clandestine entry into the UK as an alternative to legitimate economic migration." One provision calls for the construction of the asylum accommodation centers. The centers would include shopping, healthcare, and religious facilities, and are part of an effort to keep asylum seekers from disappearing into Britain's underground markets.

But the idea is drawing the ire of some Britons. Jack Hegarty, head of planning at the Wychavon District Council, which is responsible for one of the proposed sites, says residents are now selling their houses. Says Ms. Bourne: "Our research shows that there is often antagonism to these centers because the government is not preparing communities, but rather imposing the centers on them."

Page: 1 | 2