by Paul Donovan and René Lavanchy
CAMPAIGNERS and unions urged Gordon Brown this week to follow Barack Obama’s plans to allow migrant workers without papers the chance to work legally in this country. The Strangers into Citizens campaign, supported by religious leaders and cross-party MPs, believes there are around 800,000 undocumented workers in Britain who are not paying taxes, have no employment rights and who risk being deported.
The group is calling on the Government to give migrants a chance to earn citizenship by demonstrating their contribution to society.
Addressing a 15,000 strong rally in Trafalgar Square on Monday, Labour MP John Grogan said: “If undocumented workers become citizens, they can pay taxes and national insurance. It will also undercut black markets.”
“These people have been contributing to the economy… by doing jobs that other people don’t want to do”, he added.
Strangers into Citizens proposes that workers who have lived in the country for four years should be given citizenship after a two-year probation period. They claim that the additional tax revenue, plus savings on deportation costs, would free up billions of pounds for the Treasury.
The campaign has been running for three years, but activists have been cheered by President Obama’s plans, announced last month, to introduce an immigration bill this autumn which could legalise some 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of Unite, condemned the treatment of undocumented workers: “Three of our own union members were arrested when they were tricked into a ‘training’ day. When they got there, the authorities were waiting to remove them. One worker was in a desperate state because he had to collect his kids from school. They were then deported because they were undocumented but they had been here for years, worked hard and contributed much more to this country than they took out.”
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay said some workers were asylum seekers fleeing persecution.
