ID cards to cut asylum abuses 
Clampdown follows fall in applications 
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Friday May 23, 2003
The Guardian 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Refugees_in_Britain/Story/0,2763,961932,00.html
The home secretary, David Blunkett, intends to bring in legislation this
autumn to introduce a national identity or "entitlement" card for all adults
as part of a package of measures to tackle illegal working by migrants. 
The package will include a further clampdown on the appeal rights of
rejected asylum seekers and measures to tackle those who destroy their
documents on arrival in Britain. 
The measures are designed to ensure that the sharp fall in asylum
applications in Britain revealed in yesterday's official figures - down from
8,900 last October to 4,565 in March - is not just a temporary drop. 
Mr Blunkett said he would put his policy paper recommending the first
national identity card since 1948 to the cabinet in the next six weeks with
the aim of introducing the cards soon after the next general election. 
The plan has already run into opposition from the chancellor, Gordon Brown,
who has refused to foot the estimated £1.6bn cost. Instead, the scheme would
be self-financing: everybody would be charged £25 on top of the cost of
their passport or driving licence, upon which it will be "piggybacked". 
The Home Office will issue a paper summarising the responses to the official
consultation on the introduction of entitlement cards, which was launched
last July. 
Under Mr Blunkett's proposal, the card is expected to carry name, date of
birth, address, employment status, sex, photo, national insurance, passport
and driving licence numbers, and a password or PIN to authorise
transactions. It will also carry "biometric information" such as an eye scan
or electronic fingerprint to guard against identity fraud. 
Everybody will be required to register for the new national database but it
will not be compulsory to carry the card to produce to the police. 
Mr Blunkett made clear that he saw the cards as a way of tackling illegal
migrants. "I want them because I do want to know who is here," he said. "I
want to know whether they're working legally. I want to know whether they
are drawing on services legally." 
Legislation passed by Michael Howard in 1996 obliged employers to check the
immigration status of their staff but security weaknesses in the national
insurance system meant it proved ineffective. Ministers have concluded that
a secure identity card is the only way to rigorously conduct the 3.6m checks
a year on new employees. 
Talks have also been going on with the education and health departments on
what the lack of an entitlement card might mean for an illegal migrant who
was seeking medical help or education for their children. 
Tony Blair yesterday said the decline in asylum applicants was proof that
the government had "turned the corner" on asylum. 
The Home Office target to reduce the number of asylum applications has been
hit six months ahead of schedule and weekly reports to Downing Street show
the numbers are continuing to fall. Publication of the asylum figures a day
earlier than usual coincided with the prime minister's monthly press
conference. 
"It's obviously a long haul but we will continue to keep up the pressure,"
Mr Blair said. 
That will include reducing the remaining two-tier appeal system to a single
appeal and ensuring that if somebody destroys their travel documents in the
process of claiming asylum it will count against them. 
The figures show that the recognition rate for asylum seekers - those given
official permission to stay in Britain on initial decision - has fallen from
34% in January to 21% in March. A further one in five asylum seekers
initially rejected win their cases on appeal. 
Margaret Lally, of the Refugee Council, said the reduction was meaningless
if those affected were fleeing persecution. "We are very concerned that
government measures, like visa restrictions on Zimbabwe, are preventing
people whose lives are in danger reaching safety." 
The shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, cast doubt on the figures: "I
seriously doubt that the measures taken could have had such a rapid effect.
The big question is whether there are other factors that we have not been
told about." 

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