U.K. Lawmakers Weigh Biometric Card Plan
Pastor Dale Morgan
U.K. Lawmakers Weigh Biometric Card Plan*
By DAVID STRINGER
The Associated Press
Friday, January 26, 2007; 4:21 PM
LONDON -- Non-European workers in Britain could be forced to carry
biometric identity cards as early as next year under new laws proposed
Friday.
Activists opposed to proposed national identity cards claim the system
would be a trial run for a nationwide plan and could deter skilled migrants.
Home Secretary John Reid said planned laws aimed to ensure foreigners
arriving in Britain "match their rights with their responsibilities."
Workers from the European Union as well as Norway, Iceland and
Liechtenstein would be exempt from requirements to carry the cards,
which would be issued starting in 2008 to workers newly arriving in
Britain or seeking to extend their stay, the Home Office said.
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said the bill also included a range of
powers to combat human trafficking.
Campaigners claimed the foreign worker card plan would likely be an
extension of a biometrics system currently used to register asylum seekers.
Phil Booth, of the NO2ID group, said fingerprints, a photograph and
details of restriction on employment or travel are held on the cards.
"They are targeting legitimate workers who contribute a significant
amount to the gross domestic product and it looks like part of a plan
which leads to cards for the entire population," Booth said.
London's talented foreigners were being cast as suspected parasites,
said Guy Herbert, also of the NO2ID campaign. "Did anyone think to ask
Madonna how she feels about being fingerprinted?" he said.
Under the plans, failure to buy an identity card could result in fines
up to $2,000 or the loss of the right to remain in Britain. Employers
found to have hired illegal staff face prison terms and hefty fines, the
Home Office said.
Byrne said the system would help deter illegal workers, often recruited
from overseas by exploitative employers. The cause was highlighted by
the deaths in 2004 of 21 Chinese shellfish pickers in northwestern
England, who were stranded in fast-rising tides.
A think tank, the Institute of Public Policy Research, estimates around
500,000 people are working illegally in Britain.