UK: papers please

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Mon Dec 8 06:21:57 PST 2008


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3543266/Police-and-immigration-given-powers-to-demand-to-see-identification.html

Police and immigration given powers to demand to see identification

Police and immigration officers will be able to stop Britons and demand they
prove their identity under proposed sweeping new powers.

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor

Last Updated: 10:33PM GMT 02 Dec 2008

Police and immigration officers will be able to stop Britons and demand they
prove their identity under proposed sweeping new powers.

Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green: "This scheme will do nothing to
improve our security." Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

Clauses in the draft Immigration and Citizenship Bill give state officials
the power to make anyone who has ever entered the country, at any time, prove
who they are without needing any suspicion of a potential crime.

Civil liberty groups warned that the catch-all clauses would effectively
cover any British citizen who has ever left the UK, even for a holiday,
because they will have "entered" the UK on their return.

Refusing to hand over the necessary documents would be a criminal offence
with a maximum penalty of almost a year in prison and/or a hefty fine.

Officers will also be able to hold someone until they meet the requirements
and can even demand a medical examination, although that will be more
targeted at foreign nationals arriving from countries with high health risks
of contagious diseases.

Critics said the move would see a return to war-time Britain where citizens
had to carry their "papers" with them and accused the Government of bringing
in compulsory ID cards by the back door.

Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said: "We have not
had any sort of law like this outside of war time.

"In practice it will be impossible to determine who has or has not entered
the UK and therefore this applies to anyone in the UK."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne added: "This is
potentially a catch-all power which would allow the police or the officials
to arrest and hold anyone who was unable to prove their own identity.

"The Government has always promised that it would never introduce such a
draconian intrusion into our daily lives."

The clauses in the Bill, contained in the Queen's Speech, were unearthed by
civil rights group Liberty and centre on a power to examine those who "arrive
in, enter or seek to enter the UK".

A sub-clause refers to anyone who "has entered the UK" and can therefore mean
anyone who has entered either recently or in the past.

It means police or immigration officers would have the power to stop anyone,
either at a port of entry or inside the country, and demand their identity
purely on the basis they may have entered the UK at some point.

Clause 28 gives the power to require the production of a passport or other
valid identity document.

A Liberty spokeswoman said: "This extends powers of examination to several
new categories including anyone in the UK (whether a British citizen or not)
who has ever left the UK at any time. "

Currently, police or immigration officers can ask for identity if there is
reasonable suspicion of a crime or immigration offence.

The Liberty spokeswoman added: "Clause 28(3) dramatically changes this
premise allowing identity documents to be demanded of anyone that has at any
time entered the UK by anyone authorised by the Secretary of State. No
suspicion of criminality or immigration offending is required."

She said it went "far beyond" what is reasonable for immigration control,
adding: "We believe that the catch-all remit of this power is
disproportionate and that its enactment would not only damage community
relations but would represent a fundamental shift in the relationship between
the State and those present in the UK."

Around eight in ten UK citizens have a passport and the majority of those
will have left the country at some point and therefore have "entered" again.

The clauses are in the draft bill to be put forward in the Queen's Speech.

They say refusal to submit to demands for identification would be a criminal
offence that carries a maximum penalty of no more than 51 weeks in prison and
or a B#5,000.

The Government is currently rolling out the controversial ID cards programme
for both foreign nationals and Britons but has insisted it will not be
compulsory for Britons to carry the cards.

But Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said: "Sneaking in compulsory identity
cards via the back door of immigration law is a cynical escalation of this
expensive and intrusive scheme.

Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green, added "This scheme will do nothing
to improve our security, may make it worse, and will certainly land the
tax-payer with a multi-million pound bill.

"Labour should be concentrating their efforts on things that will actually
improve our security, like a dedicated UK Border police force, instead of
trying to introduce ID cards through the back door.

"Now more than ever the issue of our basic freedoms is very important."

A Home Office spokeswoman insisted there were no plans to make it compulsory
for British citizens to carry or produce forms of identity.

She said: "It is simply wrong to claim there are any plans whatsoever to make
identity cards compulsory for British citizens or to require British citizens
to have their ID card b or any other form of ID b on them at all times and to
present it when asked to do so.

"From next year British citizens will have the convenience of being able to
use identity cards to travel in Europe, but they will not become the only way
to prove your identityat borders and the UK passport will still be valid.

"In order to maintain an effective immigration control it is only right that
we ask everyone attempting to enter to the UK to produce a valid identity
document."

But Mr Booth said it was "appallingly-drafted legislation", adding: "They
have got to the point that we must take the worst possible implication of the
legislation."





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