Immigration and Asylum

	We believe large-scale reforms are essential to control the current asylum and immigration crisis. We will raise acceptance standards for immigration, cut support for failed asylum seekers and introduce stricter border controls.
The cost of running the Immigration and Nationality Department of the Home Office rose from £300 million in 1998-1999 to 1.9 billion in 2003-4. Legal aid costs of £170m a year are additional. According to Government projections - which are always notoriously under-estimated - immigration will result in an increase in the population of the UK of 6 million in the 27 years from 2004. That is six times the population of Birmingham.
Topic Links www.migrationwatchuk.org www.optimumpopulation.org
Our Policies 1. Secure our borders. We will introduce Border Police to staff every dock, airport and point of entry into the UK at all times. Providing an infinitely more robust protection to our borders. The cost of this service will be £104million and can be paid for many times over by the cuts proposed in section 2 alone. Additionally the UK will save millions in the years after the policy is put in place from reduced costs and strain upon the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, which is currently spending £300million to track down illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers. This will be supplemented by an electronic register of all individuals crossing borders. This system will enable us to monitor who has entered Britain and why, and allow us to take action when visas have expired. In 2004 12 million non-EU nationals arrived in the UK. No-one knows how many left, as we have no embarkation controls.
2. Remove incentives for asylum seekers. We will remove incentives for failed asylum seekers to remain in the UK, reforming the current benefit systems so that entitlements are clearly defined, allowing access only to those who are entitled. Over a 12 month period we will abolish all benefits and legal aid for failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, whilst reviewing the level of benefits currently offered to genuine asylum applicants and immigrants. At present foreign workers can only claimed benefits when they have worked here for 12 months. However the self-employed are not required to register. We intend to extend this period from 12 months to 36 months, including the self-employed. Currently those with families whose claims have failed continue to receive benefits worth an average of £15,000 a year tax free. In addition to that sum unlimited legal aid is provided, giving failed applicants every reason to try all possible legal avenues. We will completely reform asylum and immigration paperwork to drastically cut red tape and simplify applications. Currently red tape in immigration and asylum applications cost millions, and actually make it too expensive for the government to process at all.
3. Provide incentives for British citizens. It goes without saying we will scrap the government's ridiculous and farcical 'Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme', where failed asylum seekers are awarded cash sums of £3,000 each to return home. In it's place we will introduce a scheme whereby members of the public are offered cash rewards of £100 for information leading to the retrieval and subsequent deportation of failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants (that are not already known to authorities). The potential cost of this incentive scheme would be just £57-87million to bring the number of illegals in the UK to zero. This is just 19-29% of the £300million which the government spends every single year. A figure that is rapidly rising out of control due to the 'open door' policy to immigration. Since 1997 about 376,000 asylum seekers have been refused permission to stay here but only 85,000 have been recorded as having been removed from the UK.
4. Raise and improve citizenship criteria. We will extend and improve the existing British citizenship application test and oath of naturalisation. Our aim is to create higher standards of criteria for qualification as a British citizen, thus encouraging more highly skilled and committed New Britons. We propose that this criteria is dependent upon a combination of these factors: 1) English language fluency. 2a) Recognised academic qualifications. 2b) Recognised trade qualifications. 3) Employment status. 4a) Personal Assets. 4b) Liquid savings. This will allow the us greater control over immigration, whilst still benefiting from skilled foreign labour such as Doctors, Nurses and Dentists. Furthermore we propose citizenship tests are designed to measure intelligence, knowledge of all areas of British history, religion and culture to date. Failure to satisfy criteria will mean a refused application, or renunciation, resumption and deprivation of citizenship. Our withdrawal from the EU will affect the rights of European immigrants to work and live in the UK. All EU (and non-EU) migrants will be required to satisfy the above criteria and pass the standard citizenship tests. This will not just apply to new arrivals, but all migrants currently resident in the UK.
5. Tighten immigration law. Citizenship will be subject to stricter conditions of residency, including restriction on bringing family members to the UK. In addition we will reform the way the UK handles newly naturalised citizens and foreign nationals who commit criminal offences. As highlighted by the recent Home Office scandal where over a thousand dangerous criminals were released into the UK instead of being deported, the current system is in disarray. Currently non-EU citizens who are sentenced to 2 or more years in prison will serve their sentence and then be transferred to a detention centre on release for eventual deportation. The cost of imprisoning these individuals runs into millions and we find it utterly unacceptable that the taxpayer should have to pick up such a bill. Therefore we propose that New Britons (those naturalised within the last 5 years) and foreign nationals that are sentenced to 2 years or more are deported with immediate affect. The individual's country of origin will be informed of the sentence and advised to enforce a similar penalty on completion of deportation.