THE BUSINESS CASE FOR AMNESTY

The issue of Amnesty took the centre stage of political discourse in the UK with many unhelpful commentaries that is based on emotional outburst rather than national interest or sound intellectual debate. My interest in the subject matter stems from my practical understanding of the issue at hand and professional experience working in the immigration enforcement arena.

My parents were Commonwealth Citizens born in the British Colony of Nigeria and I'm a British Citizen born in the United Kingdom, so I understand the immigration issue and emotional attachment associated with it. More importantly, I worked closely on issue of migration as Assistant Director engaging with migrant communities to reduce illegal migration.

The sensational obsession of some right-wing media with the issue of migration and stereo-typing on the amnesty saga; is not only disappointing but sometimes, creates an atmosphere of intolerance with the narrative that infer every dark skin person walking on the streets of the UK is viewed as illegal migrant

Some communities feel under siege by the narrative that views anyone with suspicious and I fully understand their concerns. I was a senior manager present at the illegal working raid of Chinatown in London and I fully understand the frustration of the community at that time. Years after exiting the system, I was ordered to get off a London bus by an immigration officer that felt I looked like an 'illegal migrant' though none of the White Eastern Europeans sitting next to me where accorded the same treatment but the embarrassing episode was cut short when one of the officers recognised me as one of their former Home Office staff, That incident made me under that my siblings, cousins and other family members who are British born could be victim of immigration abuse just because of the colour of their skin and their name.

At this critical stage of our national discourse that we are preparing for Brexit and the uncertainty of what would be the legal position of illegal migrant post 31st October 2019 – it is only right that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, address the issue squarely. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the crisis of illegal migration, they only need to visit an immigration detention centre or reporting venue of the Home Office to understand the scale of the challenges association with managing illegal migration. In a period of 4 years from 2014 to 2018, the immigration enforcement team detained 143,810 persons and yet, there is a serious concern about the management of undocumented migrant which is far different from illegal migrant because you don’t even know about their existent or location within the country.

It has been revealed that it would take the UK approximately 20 years to deport all the illegal migrants known the UK immigration enforcement team at the cost of £12 billion with a Home Office study based on Census 2001 data released in March 2005 estimating that the illegal migrant population is between 310,000 and 570,000 though anyone with good understanding of the issue will place the figure at a higher number

Considering the challenges associated with the removal of all illegal migrant and huge cost to the taxpayer; it is only reasonable to consider the economic benefit of amnesty post October 2019.

Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research suggested that an amnesty would net the government up to £1.038 billion per year in fiscal revenue which over a period of 10 years would be over £10 billion

It’s important to highlight that since 9th of July 2012 when the UK immigration rule was changed dramatically, it’s now practically impossible to enter the United Kingdom illegally with the strategic aim of overstaying and hoping to secure amnesty after a long period.

The changes in the immigration rules also ushered in some key issues to protect UK critical infrastructure against abuse and financial challenges; for instance, the UK government introduced the health surcharge in April 2015 and it has raised £175m, with 450,000 surcharges issued in the first year. It is on record that the NHS spends an average of £470 a year on treating the people who pay the surcharge in comparison with £1,000 collected fron every application submitted by an applicant.

The Immigration (Health Charge) Order 2015 which was made under the Cameron–Clegg coalition, was a provision of the Immigration Act 2014 which helps fund the National Health Service (NHS), and will give migrants the same access to the NHS as UK citizen; as at today, it cost every migrant an estimated £1,000 to secure the IHS reference number which is separate from the Home Office Application Fee. Thus, if the Boris Johnson administration successfully granted 500,000 illegal migrants was form of legal status with over 10 years clear record of no criminality; then the taxpayer would get an average of £2 billion from IHS payment over a period of 10 years.

In line with Home Office immigration rules, a large proportion of the 500,000 illegal migrants would have to be granted 30 months limited leave under the 10 years pathway to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) denoting that they will be no recourse to public funding and they will have to renew their applications every 30 months (2.5 years) and pay both the Home Office Application Fee and IHS to the tune of £4,066,000,000 over a period of 10 years excluding the amount paid in national insurance contribution running into millions of pounds.

The narrative normally pushed by right-wing media is that majority of the illegal migrants have criminal records and it would be impossible to determine if we are allowing criminals to settle in the United Kingdom; however, the contrary is the case because the Home Office and Police have records of all these illegal migrant with biometric enrolment being a major component of any application process so criminals would be flagged up through the police PNC database.

Considering the economical benefit of the amnesty, it is only reasonable that the direction of travel is to explore the granting of the amnesty in a controlled manner that ensures UK national security and the benefit to UK economy post 31st October 2019

Temitope Olodo is a Preventive Terrorism Consultant, Author and President of Africa Security Forum based in the United Kingdom.