Reid pledges to strengthen borders
Wednesday, 28 Mar 2007 14:00
John Reid has promised to restore trust in the British immigration system
Home secretary John Reid has today promised to crack down on illegal immigration and tighten Britain's borders.
Mr Reid outlined new measures the government is to undertake to shore up the UK's much-maligned immigration system, which he accepts is "the peoples' highest priority".
The headline measure announced today is the exporting of Britain's border controls to other countries and the expanding of the visa system so that 75 per cent of the world's population will need documentation to enter the UK.
"We are actually putting, at the point of departure from the country you are leaving, the requirement entry visa," Mr Reid told Sky News.
"That will apply to about half the countries in the world by the end of 2008. That is about three-quarters of the world's population. If you want to come from those countries to here you have to have a visa before you leave."
He added that the use of new technology in the form of biometric identity cards will also help strengthen Britain's position, with all people arriving in the country needing to give a finger print or an iris scan.
That would mean the UK has a "second system of discovering who has come here" which would counter the problem of people "arriving here and ripping up their documents".
Britain will also look at introducing the US-style visa system to other countries in the world in 2009, "even [to] those who do not require a waiver at present", Mr Reid added, while misuses such as forced marriages will also be targeted.
"This is the next stage in a six- or seven-year plan, year in year out, to restore some really effective control to the tracking of people in and out of our country," Mr Reid concluded.
The government says that a trial of exporting cross-channel border controls to France and Belgium led to an "88 per cent fall in the number of clandestine entrants detected in Kent in 2006 compared to the same period in 2002".
Immigration minister Liam Byrne added: "Secure borders help combat illegal immigration, false asylum claims and clandestine entrants by stopping those people from getting near the UK, yet make it easier for the almost 200 legitimate travellers per minute who cross our borders.
"Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals will be a vital buttress of our defences giving businesses and public services the choice to check whether someone is who they say they are."