Calls for ID cards to help in migrant crisis

IDENTITY cards are now ‘essential’ in the wake of the Calais m ig r a nt crisis, campaigners are claiming.

Migration Watch UK said ‘radical action’ was needed and also called for a full search of all trucks as they arrive at the port of Dover.

The think tank, which campaigns for tighter immigration restrictions, said the crisis in Calais is the culmination of ‘long-standing and growing weaknesses in the immigration system’.

The report stated: “In the longer-term, we must return to the introduction of ID cards.

“The French are right to point out that the absence of ID cards in the United Kingdom makes it far too easy for migrants to stay there illegally and find work in Britain.”

French officials have repeatedly claimed the absence of ID cards in the UK and access to the unofficial and unregulated jobs market are major factors in drawing migrants to Calais.

In March, the town’s mayor Natacha Bouchart said in an interview: “They want to go to England because they can expect better conditions on arrival there than anywhere else in Europe or even internationally.

“There are no ID cards. They can easily find work outside the formal economy, which is not really controlled.”

Migration Watch UK’s Lessons From Calais report also called for:

:: A full search of trucks arriving in Dover, with illegal immigrants being immediately arrested if found.

:: Contingency planning for military aid to be available to help conduct searches.

:: Additional detention centres to be established around Dover amid an overall expansion of the estate.

:: A “one-stop shop” to consider asylum claims and deport those whose claims fail.

L ord Green of Deddington, chairman of Migration Watch, said: “More security measures in France will not be sufficient. We need to change the perception that Britain is a ‘soft touch’.