Immigration under new UK government

THE Tories are back in power in the UK but in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, courtesy of a hung parliament. The extreme ideological positions of the two respective parties are all too clear and at face-value, they seem to make strange bed-fellows indeed.

In the lead up to the May 6 elections, there was a lot of anxiety in immigrant communities about the prospect of a Tory administration. This is because the Tories have a well-earned reputation for their hardline stance on immigration, among other issues.

But with a coalition government in which the Lib Dems seem to have some clout, it appears that the harsher aspects of Tory immigration policy may be watered down, and in some respects, even bettered.

So what are the developments so far? And what is likely to happen to migration policy?

Here is a 10-point overview:

1. The new Secretary for the Home Office is the Tory MP Theresa May. She is famous for admitting at the 2002 Conservative Party Conference that the Tories were the ‘nasty party’ of British politics. In her new job, she now has the perfect opportunity to demonstrate whether the Tories have moved on.

The Immigration minister is Damien Green, another Tory MP, who became famous for his arrest and the searching of his House of Commons office in November 2008 over leaks of official information at the Home Office.

The new Lord Chancellor and Secretary for Justice, under whose brief prisons and the Legal Aid scheme fall, is Kenneth Clarke. Nick Herbert, the Security minister, is also a Tory. This looks to me like an absolute monopoly of the key ministries that directly affect immigration.

2. The Immigration minister Damien Green announced almost immediately after his appointment that he intends to stop within months the practice of detaining children in immigration detention centres. This was championed by the Lib Dems, so credit to them.

However, whilst this is a bold and big development which has been widely welcomed in progressive circles, it will be more important to see how the new government will treat families with children who go through the asylum system, in terms of support, healthcare, accommodation and the funding of the legal aid scheme, among others.

3. The 11-point Coalition Agreement of May 11, 2010, states that there will be a cap on immigration to the UK. The cap on immigration was one of the Tories’ flagship policies in the 2010 general election which survived the coalition compromise arrangements. For the Tories, this was an absolute non-negotiable, red-line issue.

The cap is aimed at non-EU economic migration. How the cap mechanisms will work has not yet been agreed and this is likely to be a flashpoint issue, even with the Tory support base which includes big business who routinely bring non-EU skilled workers to the UK. It is important to point out that the cap does not affect asylum, but we can expect a tougher stance on removals.

On the election trail, David Cameron repeatedly made big noises about the numbers of overstayers and failed asylum seekers in the UK caused by what he called Labour’s failed policies. We can expect that he will try to deliver on his pledge to keep his constituency on-side. For overstayers therefore, there is no better time than now to seek to regularise their stay.

4. Unfortunately, the Lib Dems proposal for offering an amnesty for overstayers and failed asylum seekers was junked. This was another big no-no for the Tories and sadly, the Lib Dems capitulated.

5. Fortunately, it looks like the Human Rights Act will survive. The Tories wanted to repeal it altogether. The Lib Dems had pledged in their election manifesto to keep it and they seem to have delivered. The Human Rights Act, introduced by the outgoing Labour administration in October 2000, is extremely useful in resisting removal, especially for overstayers who have established family lives in the UK.

It is true that it has been cynically exploited but without it, a lot of overstayers with genuine concerns for their safety in their home countries, as well as family ties in the UK, would be routinely laughed out of court.

6. Identity cards will be scrapped as part of the so-called Freedom or Greater Repeal Bill. It is not yet clear, to me at least, but it seems this may also extend to foreign nationals who have been required to have ID cards since November 2008. It just seems a very strange thing that Labour, the natural party for the progressive left, should have introduced such draconian measures that Robert Mugabe would have been proud of.

7. Another part of the Freedom Bill is the undertaking that there will be “a new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences”. Hopefully, that will stop the criminalisation of asylum seeking that the Labour administration became notorious for.

8. As part of the inevitable cuts to public spending as part of the deficit-reduction plan, the Legal Aid budget will almost definitely be affected. It currently stands at just over £2bn per annum. There has in fact been a delay in announcing this year’s winning bids for legal aid to allow the new administration to make some input, possibly into the number of qualifying law firms and the actual budget figures. Perhaps a clearer picture will emerge after the emergency budget which will be presented within 50 days of the Coalition Agreement.

9. At this stage, it is not clear what will happen to the Points Based System as a whole. David Cameron is on record as wanting to keep it, but to tighten it with respect to student visas. This looks like a possible flash point with the Lib Dems who have a massive student constituency. I have a particular interest in the debate over Indefinite Leave to Remain and the whole concept of earned citizenship and whether the Labour proposals will now be shelved.

10. Finally, the previous Labour administration was mulling over whether to begin removals of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe. Everyone will be anxious to see what approach the new administration takes. My personal opinion is that it would be too early to make a decision at this stage before elections in Zimbabwe, which are traditionally accompanied by increased violence and a crackdown on the ‘opposition’.

The Lib Dems have been called all sorts of names for hitching up with the Tories in this unlikely alliance. Time will tell whether they will be able to stop the extremes of Tory immigration policy from being implemented.

Taffy Nyawanza works for Bake & Co Solicitors in Birmingham. He can be contacted on tnyawanza@bakesolicitors.co.uk or ph. 0121 616 5025 or visit Bake & Co Solicitors’ website at www.bakesolicitors.co.uk

Disclaimer: This article only provides general information and guidance on immigration law. It is not intended to replace the advice or services of a solicitor. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. The writer will not accept any liability