GO HOME IMMIGRATION POSTERS WORKING DOWNING STREET CLAIMS

'Go home' immigration posters are already working, Downing Street claims
Downing Street has claimed that the Home Office’s controversial “go home” immigration campaign is “already working” and suggested the scheme could be rolled out across the country.

Mobile billboards carry a warning of "Go Home or Face Arrest" Photo: RICK FINDLER
By Peter Dominiczak, Political Correspondent
1:10PM BST 29 Jul 2013
183 Comments
According to David Cameron’s spokesman there has been a “great deal of interest” from illegal immigrants voluntarily calling a Government helpline and asking how to leave the country.

However, Downing Street later indicated that the Home Office has not actually provided any statistics that prove the scheme is working and that officials have merely told their Number 10 counterparts that it has been a success.

It came as Downing Street slapped down Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, who yesterday described the campaign telling illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest” as “stupid and offensive”.

The strategy has seen vans displaying posters targeted at illegal immigrants driving around six London boroughs.

Asked whether the Prime Minister agreed with Mr Cable’s view that the posters are offensive, Mr Cameron’s spokesman said: “No is the short answer. This pilot is about targeting people who are here illegally and giving the opportunity to leave the country voluntarily rather than be arrested, detained and removed and we know that voluntary returns are the most cost effective way of removing illegal immigrants.”

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He added: “If you talk to the Home Office they can tell you that they’ve had a great deal of interest and they are looking at seeing which inquiries they can take forward.”

A Home Office source later said that the vans pilot had only ended on Sunday and that statistics on the scheme may not yet have been compiled.

Asked if the pilot would be extended nationwide , the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "The Home Office has said this is already working. Clearly, we will want to look at that in more detail and see how we take this forward."

The Liberal Democrats and community groups who claim it is divisive and heightens racial tensions. Even Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, voiced concern.

Mr Cable said it was already difficult to be an immigrant in Britain and made clear that the Lib Dems had not sanctioned the Home Office’s “pilot” scheme.

He claimed that the Conservatives were “obsessing” about the total level of immigration, which was leading them to make poor policy decisions.

However, Downing Street insisted the pilot had been signed off by “the Home Office team”, indicating that it has had support from Jeremy Browne, a Lib Dem minister in the department.

Face arrest? They've got to find them first!  

AnnaEsse wrote:Face arrest? They've got to find them first!  

It really is pathetic AnnaEsse, the photo never came out but it is a big Van ...In the Telegraph.

Note a government contractor is flying in foreign workers to repair tunnels!!!

Government contractor 'flies in foreign workers to repair tunnels'
A major Government supplier is flying in foreign workers to help repair road tunnels, it has emerged, just days after a Tory business minister said companies have a "social duty" to hire UK staff.

Matthew Hancock says that firms should take responsibility and train local workers Photo: Getty Images
By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent
11:39AM BST 29 Jul 2013
146 Comments
According to the Birmingham Mail, around 200 workers from countries such as Portugal and Spain are being housed in student halls of residence while they work on the city's tunnels.

Amey, which has contracts with many Government departments and local councils, said in a statement that 70 per cent of its 1,000 workers on the project are from the Midlands. The company said workers from outside the area were specialist staff or on short term contracts.

However, local Tory councillors expressed concern that almost a third of the firm's workers were not local at a time of rising unemployment in Birmingham.

The report comes after Matthew Hancock, a minister in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, suggested training and employing British workers is more important than a firm generating profit.

Mr Hancock, the business and skills minister, has said that companies have a “social duty” to employ young British workers rather than better-qualified immigrants.

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He said that employers should be prepared to invest in training British staff rather than simply looking for "pure profit".

Asked whether he believes that a company should train British workers “at the risk of a little bit of profit” rather that employing foreigners Mr Hancock said: “Yes, yes I do.”

He added: “I think that the Government has a responsibility too. We have a responsibility to support that training.”

"As the amount of jobs in the economy grows - we saw the good growth figures yesterday - everybody should be given the chance to get on in life and get one," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"During the last boom there was a lot of recruitment from abroad and, in fact, youth unemployment went up, even during the boom.

"This is about a change of culture. I'm arguing that it is companies' social responsibility, it is their social duty, to look at employing locally first.

"That may mean that they have to do more training. It may mean more training in hard skills, in specific skills. Or it may mean training in the wherewithal, the character you need in order to hold down a job.

"The responsibility of employers is to the community that they live in as well as to pure profit."

Some Tory MPs fears among Tory MPs of a new influx of immigrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria when restrictions on their employment are lifted next year.

The Conservatives are under pressure from Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party, which has been pressing for tighter controls.

In a joint statement, Amey and Birmingham City Council said: “Over 70 per cent of the workforce on this project is based in, or has been recruited from, the Midlands area with the remainder made up of a combination of specialist skilled and short-term labour.

“We encourage all suppliers and subcontractors to recruit from the local area and support the local economy whenever possible.

“For the refurbishment of the tunnels, active recruitment by subcontractors has been taking place in the region.”

I just can't imagine that someone would 'fess up' to being here illegally  

chrissie wrote:I just can't imagine that someone would 'fess up' to being here illegally  

I know, it's pathetic chrissie....and on the next breath we hear of a Government Contractor flying over Europeans to repair a Tunnel. !!!!! I despair of Parliament , I really do!!!

Immigration: UK’s head in the sand



5 April 2013
The Daily Telegraph London

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People wait for international buses at the central bus station in Sofia, Bulgaria
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images-AFP

The anticipated wave of Bulgarian and Romanian immigration in 2014 will not be as high as previously thought, according to a new government report. But that is no reason to ignore the consequences for urbanism and social services, writes the conservative Daily Telegraph.

The Daily Telegraph

In 2014, Britain and other European countries will open their labour markets to Bulgaria and Romania, as the temporary restrictions imposed when they joined the European Union are lifted. Ministers have made it clear that they cannot do anything to prevent any migrants who wish to from coming here: even the mooted advertising campaign to convince new arrivals that Britain is not exactly Great after all has been shelved.

The question, then, is not how we can stop the new arrivals coming, but whether we are doing enough to prepare. On that score, the answer is a resounding no.

It is admittedly hard to make convincing estimates of the scale of the influx, but the latest effort, carried out on the government’s behalf by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, takes wishy-washiness to new heights. The authors conclude that “the UK is not a favoured destination” for Bulgarians and Romanians, but add that this may well change.

And while nothing so crude as a numerical estimate is offered, the general sense is that the number arriving will be well below the 50,000 per year predicted by MigrationWatch UK, and that there is really not that much to worry about.

This is dangerously complacent. While the number of newcomers is indeed unknown, it is surely better to be over- rather than underprepared. Then again, it is of a piece with a more general failure to prepare for the consequences of migration. For example, the baby boom fuelled by new arrivals has led to enormous pressure on school places: even without a single extra visitor from Sofia or Bucharest, England will still need more than 400 new primary schools per year in order to cope. The same is true across the public services.

Read article in full at The Daily Telegraph en

On the web
Original article at The Daily Telegraph en


From Bucharest

Don’t take it personally

“The English don’t hate us,” remarks Romanian news website Hotnews —


… as the English would say, don’t take these things, which are grist to the mill of the press and a campaign issue for certain British politicians, personally. We are scapegoats for an economic crisis that has coincided with a crisis in the European Union, in which discussions about immigrants have dominated the public agenda!

For Hotnews, however, “it is not easy to be a Romanian in Britain today.” Negative portrayals of Romanians have fuelled xenophobia “exploited by certain politicians like the Ukip candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, Diane James, who claimed they have a natural propensity for crime.” She was later obliged to apologise but she still finished in second place, with 28 per cent of the vote.

The website also notes that an online petition calling for measures to prevent Romanian and Bulgarian immigration, which gathered 140,000 signatures, will be debated in the House of Commons on April 22.