Posted on 01/14/2008 6:21:52 AM PST by Stoat
Fingerprints will be required on all UK visas from now on
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said a programme for installing biometric visa controls has been completed three months ahead of schedule.
He said: "It is done three months early and it is done several million pounds under budget.
"We now check everybody's fingerprint wherever they apply for a visa around the world."
Mr Byrne said the new system - the first of 10 key changes to the UK's border controls to be implemented during this year - is already having an effect.
"We have already found about 500 cases of people who have chosen not to give us their identity correctly and we have checked them against databases that we hold in the UK and found out that they have been lying to us," he said.
"Obviously, that has allowed us to stop them coming anywhere near Britain."
Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said: "Recording biometric information allows us to fix an individual's identity at the earliest point practicable and track their future dealings with the UK."
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said fingerprinting for visas is working
Businesses will be fined up to £10,000 for every illegal they negligently hire, and bosses also could face up to two years in prison.
A radio and newspaper advertising campaign began today to raise awareness of the new rules, which will come into force before the end of next month.
"The message is clear for employers - we will not tolerate illegal working," said Mr Byrne.
"This highly visible marketing campaign will ensure employers have no excuse for breaking the rules."
But Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: "In general, the Government are getting tougher on immigration, and not before time.
"But they are, naturally, ignoring the massive EU dimension in all of this, which is that, despite all these controls, 450 million people still have the right to come to Britain to live and work, to claim benefits, send their children to our schools and use our health service.
"Mr Byrne's milestones have taken a scenic detour around these inconvenient facts.
"In reality, all they have done, and all the Tories are proposing to do, is make it harder for non-whites to come into Britain."
Information for employers is available at www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/employingmigrants. Anyone who suspects illegal workers are being employed at a business can contact the Border and Immigration employers helpline on 0845 010 6677.
(Edit)
Businesses will be fined up to £10,000 for every illegal they negligently hire, and bosses also could face up to two years in prison.
(Edit)
"The message is clear for employers - we will not tolerate illegal working," said Mr Byrne.
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(picking self up off of floor)
Wondering if Mr. Byrne might like to come over to the USA and work with us for awhile? :-)
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Now they can concentrate more on the jihadists already in the door. (Theyve gone after some of them, of course).
And sadly, it appears that some terrorists won't even need a Visa because they were there all along....
This from yesterday:
Al-Qaeda's white army of terror (MI5 Source up to 1500 white Britons radicalized to Islamofascism)
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