Refugees face identity papers law
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Your support makes all the difference.Asylum-seekers who cannot produce identity papers will be deported under a Bill being prepared by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary.
Mr Blunkett said yesterday that people seeking asylum who tore up their passports or used a false identity would be automatically refused the right to live in Britain.
The legislation is intended to reassure immigration officers, who complain that many asylum-seekers dispose of papers to make it more difficult to deport them. Measures to identify asylum-seekers and confirm their country of origin are expected to be in a Bill being drafted by the Home Office. "We are looking seriously at legislating to stop people who have destroyed their documents trying to claim," Mr Blunkett said on BBC1's Politics Show.
But groups helping asylum-seekers say many fleeing torture or persecution arrive without papers because they have been confiscated or the refugee had to escape in a hurry.
The crackdown may be accompanied by the introduction of new technology, including voice recognition and language tests, to prevent multiple claims. Mr Blunkett also indicated that he intended to go ahead with plans for identity cards. He said he would assess the desirability of introducing the cards with the Cabinet by the summer. He believed most people would support the cards if they were assured their privacy would not be violated.
But he will scrap plans to call them entitlement cards, instead calling them ID cards, "because people will understand what we are talking about".
The cards, which civil liberties groups say will undermine privacy, are likely to be used by asylum-seekers, people on benefits or those using the NHS.
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