BRITAIN has long dedicated itself
to the proposition that its inhabitants should never suffer dire
poverty as result of being deprived of the fundamental rights afforded
by law.
Yet now Britain must face the truth that hundreds of thousands of
the inhabitants of our nation live and work in conditions that shame
that proposition, and call into question whether Britain can still
be called civilised.
In the year of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave
trade, it is a grave matter that close to half a million people
living in Britain today do not enjoy the protection of the law.
These people are termed "illegal", even though they are
hardworking, taxpaying, law-abiding people who want only to bring
up their families in peace and security.
Some are vulnerable before unbending employers who take advantage
of their lack of protection to pay them poverty wages, undercutting
other workers -- making a mockery of minimum wage legislation.
Others are not exploited, yet cannot report crimes, open bank accounts
or go to doctors. They cannot go home without giving up their new
lives in Britain.
Some live what are on the surface normal lives. But as the stories
we have gathered show, almost nothing is normal in the lives of
undocumented migrants who have put down roots in Britain.
These people from far-off lands are not strangers to the churches,
mosques and communities which they frequent, and where they have
found consolation and protection. There they are not considered
foreigners but friends.
They have learned our language, and are familiar to us. Their children
study in our schools. They work in our factories and our shops and
our offices.
Yet where British people who know them see them as fellow citizens,
the law of our land sees them not at all.
While our economy profits from the contributions of these migrants,
we do not accord to them the basic rights which every subject of
Her Majesty acquired in the act of being born.
Hundreds of thousands these migrants have made new lives in the
UK. The Government admits that most cannot be and will not be deported.
Yet the Government seems to be content to allow Britain to have
a sub-class of citizen, as the very poor of the nineteenth century
were a sub-class.
And just as the conscience of our society was eventually shaken
by the evidence of inhumanity which the very poor then suffered;
And just as it was determined that the law should provide protection
to the very poor if Britain were to be proud of its humanity;
So we believe that the conscience of our society must again be shaken
and seek to extend to undocumented workers the recognition of the
law.
We propose that irregular
migrants who have lived and worked in the UK for four or more years
be granted a two-year work permit. At the end of those two years,
subject to employer and character references, they should be given
leave to remain.
Such regularisations have been successfully carried out by other
European nations. It is time it was carried out in the UK.
Strangers into Citizens is campaigning for a one-off regularisation
measure to be introduced as part of the Government's reform of immigration.
We ask that the Government consider for undocumented workers, that
they might enjoy the same inalienable fundamental rights to fair
pay and the protection of the law which the British people have
proudly won for themselves.
We believe that by doing so great benefits will accrue to the Exchequer,
and to the well-being and economy of our nation.
