Activists rally to urge amnesty for illegal immigrants

london independent
Religious leaders, musicians, actors and union chiefs will join the largest migrant rally in British history today, calling for an amnesty for 500,000 illegal immigrants which would give them rights to stay and work in this country.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor led the calls for the Government to allow a "pathway into citizenship" for workers who have been in this country for at least four years. But it sparked a fresh row between migrant aid groups and anti-immigration lobbyists.

Campaigners, who include the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and the Iraqi British actor Lewis Alsamari, who appeared in the film United 93, will call for an end to the exploitation of illegal workers, who are often paid below the minimum wage or are denied legal rights in the "underground" economy.

The campaign, Strangers into Citizens, could prove an embarrassment for ministers who are imposing tougher penalties on employers of illegal immigrants and are reluctant to be seen to be soft on immigration.

The pressure group Migrationwatch, which strongly opposes the campaign, said the Home Office estimates were out of date, and a more accurate estimate of the numbers in this country who could benefit from an amnesty is more than one million.

"The Government's policy is to strengthen measures against employers of illegal workers and to tighten access to health and education services," a spokesman for Migrationwatch said. Extending access to welfare state for illegal immigrants could cost £1.5bn a year and add a million to the housing lists, he said.

Keith Best, the chief executive of the immigration advisory service, accused Migrationwatch of being "confused and misrepresenting the facts". He said immigrants were not entitled to state benefits and added: "The only way in which migrant workers can undercut British workers in low-skilled jobs is by being paid less than the minimum wage, which is unlawful."

Elizabeth Mountford, a director of Initial Facilities Services, one of the largest cleaning contracting companies in the UK, said she supported the campaign because of the number of workers she could not employ because they were illegal.

"It is common for us to win a new contract but then have to turn away some of the staff we have inherited because they do not have the right papers," she said "I have often had to terminate the employment of people who have been in this country for five years or more. These workers should have a means by which they can become legal."

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, who will conduct a mass for migrant workers at Westminster Cathedral before the march and rally at Trafalgar Square, rejected criticism that the amnesty would lead to another half-million illegal immigrants coming to Britain.

"I don't think that's true," he said on the BBC's Sunday AM programme. "What we're dealing with are the people already here. The Government must decide how many people to 'allow' in. There are two hundred million migrants all round the world. It's a huge number. And I think states now are realising they've got to look at this in a just way."

He said today's rally would concentrate on the plight of those in Britain who are undocumented migrants. "A way has got to be found whereby they can become citizens and have the advantages of that," he said."That's the advantages for this country as well. Many of them are married, settled down and so they live in a kind of shadow land. That's not right and it's not fair."