Green Party leader Natalie Bennett condemned the British government’s new immigration policy and said this will demonise the migrants.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the government will stem the illegal migration by several measures including confiscating the wages of those who work in the UK without a visa. he also said the new policy of ‘deport first and appeal later.’
“These plans do nothing but illustrate the government’s lack of compassion, lack of perspective and ultimately their lack of will to genuinely address the economic anxieties of the people of Britain, Bennett said in her blog in Huffington Post.
“The measures Cameron has announced will criminalise those working here illegally, allow their wages to be seized, and expand the scope of the ‘deport first, appeal later’ system. They are designed to appease the government’s critics as the ONS revealed that net migration has risen to 380,000 – another clear failure of the government to meet its own arbitrary target. The new policy announcement, however, is at best totally illogical: the figures announced yesterday are for legal immigration, and will not be affected in the slightest by tightening laws on illegal immigration.
“At worst, however, this is the most dangerous kind of scapegoating; linking overall immigration figures in both the media and the public consciousness with illegality reinforces the already pervasive idea that all immigrants are somehow illegitimate, needing constant supervision and strict regulation.
“These measures are also deeply worrying in that they represent a significant step-up in the government’s willingness to force those who are ‘undeserving’ into poverty. Thus far, they have been content to steadily withdraw benefits, refusing to help many of those who need it on the grounds that that help has not been earned. Now, however, they are going further: confiscating earnings on the grounds that they should not have been earned in the first place. These policies are the product of a party more concerned with appeasing anti-immigrant sentiment than on ensuring the well-being of the people it governs.”