Lib Dems urge immigrant amnesty

8.53.02am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 28th Aug 2007

Local Party Chair Eileen Birch welcomes Nick Clegg to Wolverhampton

Illegal immigrants should be given "selective amnesty" to allow them to earn the right to British citizenship, the Liberal Democrats have said. Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg MP said "Those staying long-term should be able to apply for permanent residence. But they should be required to fulfil a series of conditions, such as the ability to speak English", he added. Mr Clegg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the problem of long-term illegal immigrants needed to be tackled. "This, frankly, is just in recognition of the fact that, because of incompetence or mismanagement in the immigration system over many years, we have very large numbers of people who live in this kind of twilight world of illegality and, in many cases, exploitation in the workplace which we need to deal with," he said.

"One can't simply carry on as the government and the Conservatives are doing, sticking one's head in the sand and saying 'well, we'll deport them one day', because that's simply never going to happen."

It is not known how many illegal immigrants are in the UK, with estimates varying widely from 300,000 to 900,000.

The government has also come under fire from MPs and peers over tighter rules which could force thousands of highly-skilled immigrant workers out of the UK. In August the joint Commons and Lords Human Rights Committee said changes last year to the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP), which encourages workers such as doctors and scientists to come to the UK, breached human rights. New applicants and applicants for visa extensions now have to take part in a points-based assessment and the committee said thousands offered permanent residence in the UK were now facing deportation, contrary to "fairness".