Jalandhar, Dec. 12 (PTI): The UK government has amended its immigration and asylum act so that an illegal entrant without valid travel documents would be liable for imprisonment for six months before deportation.
“Keeping in view the reports of the human rights groups in Britain regarding political and economic situation prevailing in most of the third world countries, the government has amended the immigration and asylum act, whereby one has to undergo six months’ imprisonment for entering without valid travelling documents,” said Harjap Singh Bhangal, solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
“In fact, the British government is now going very tough against illegal migrants, particularly after September 11 terror attacks in the US,” he added.
The government, however, has decided to encourage genuine immigrants by allowing eligible candidates to apply for work permit, after a year’s stay, under the “working holiday maker scheme” without any limit on working hours, Bhangal said. The scheme entitles an English-speaking citizen of a Commonwealth country between 17 and 30 to stay in England for two years and work for 25 hours a week.
Bhangal said it has now been decided to allow any eligible applicant to apply for work permit after a year’s stay and that, too, without any bar on working hours a week.
“In fact, there is a need to create awareness among the people of Punjab about the availability of legal means to work in England to save them from falling pray to notorious travel agents here, who are minting lakhs on the pretext of sending them abroad using illegal channels. Britain, unlike in the past, is no more a haven for political asylum seekers,” he said.
Most illegal entrants from third world countries, particularly India, would damage their passport at the airport to later seek political asylum on the pretext of threat to life in their country of origin, Bhangal added.
Around 40,000 applicants from Commonwealth countries were being granted visas every year under the holiday maker scheme, he said.
