Immigration system to change
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25 July 2006
An in-depth review of the immigration system sets out the Home Secretary's plans for widespread changes and improvements.
The UK's immigration policies must move with the times to deal with the spreading impact of globalisation, changing patterns of travel and migration, and the effects of international crime and terrorism, so says Fair, Effective, Transparent and Trusted: Rebuilding Confidence in our Immigration System, a review published by the Home Office today.
The review outlines how the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) will meet the challenges it faces in the coming years.
The document is designed to build on the government's existing five-year strategy for asylum and immigration, with new proposals for strengthening borders, streamlining the asylum process and removing the most harmful illegal immigrants first, in order to protect the people of the UK.
Key proposals in the review
The review contains a number of proposals that will help the IND refocus its attention on its core objectives. These include:
- implementing ID cards, starting with biometric residence permits for foreign nationals by 2008
- requiring non-European Economic Area nationals to have unique, secure IDs in order to travel to Britain by 2011
- performing border checks before people leave their home nations, especially on high-risk routes
- counting everyone in and out of the country by 2014
- enhancing the powers of the borders service
- handling 90% of asylum claims within six months
- making more effective use of detention, tagging and monitoring of those whose asylum cases have not yet been decided
- strictly enforcing laws that ban the employment of illegal residents
There is no overnight solution
Home Secretary John Reid said the challenges facing IND are growing and the agency will have to move with the times if it is to handle them with strength and success. 'There is no overnight solution, but work has begun and we are already taking action to improve our services and restore public confidence,' Dr Reid said.
He said some of the review's suggestions will require consultation in the coming months, but that 'with the continued hard work and commitment of the directorate, we will be able to deliver a more effective, efficient and robust service that the public and Parliament rightly expect.
Reforming the Home Office
The review of the immigration system published today is part of our plans to reform how the Home Office works, and follows the publication last week of a detailed Review of the Criminal Justice System and our overall Reform Action Plan.
For more information on our Reform plans and updates on our progress over the coming months, see Reforming the Home Office.
