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In a random thought, I was wondering about the plight of illegal immigrants (II). If found in Britain, what should the authorities do?
During the elections, the Liberal Democrats offered that all IIs (that had lived in the UK for a certain amount of time) should be given an amnesty, but the Coalition has recently denied any possibility of this happening. Obviously, the problem with simply giving all IIs an amnesty will lead to a larger number (attempting to) enter the country in the future with the hope of a similar amnesty. But should they simply be deported if found?
At my school a couple of years ago, two school children, Zoe and Moses, were on the verge of being deported with the mother to Zimbabwe. This was after having lived in the UK for 7 years. Petitions were swiftly organised, and the school came together as a community, as did a large number of people who felt that they should not be deported; the fact that Zimbabwe is not by any means a safe state, as well as their father being abusive led to many hassling their MPs and the Home Secretary to stop this. Eventually, they were not deported and are still studying in the UK. I'm sure there must be many similar cases where children and parents alike are sent back to destructive countries as their cases are unknown.
How about families who, say, moved here 10 years ago? Let's add to the equation that they had a boy who was 11 years old at the time. Going back to the present day, the boy would now be 21 years old (perhaps having gone through the university system) and without any passport (he would not have been able to leave the country or renew it within the UK). Thus, he would not be able to get National Insurance or get a work permit - companies would not hire him. Further to this, the government may find out that he is living in the country illegally. Should he be deported? If he is, he would in essence be charged for the crimes that his parents committed. Is this just or fair?
Although not really in the news at the moment, I still felt it's an issue worth bringing up. Please leave comments: what do you think?
