Tony Blair launches new drive for digital ID cards to tackle illegal immigration

Tony Blair has launched a new drive for ID cards as he claims it would tackle illegal migration.

A report by the former prime minister’s institute, published on Friday, said the weakest link in the Government’s approach to migration was its failure to crack down on a black market fuelled by unscrupulous employers giving jobs to illegal migrants.

It proposed a “digital identity verification” system for all Britons which would be required to claim benefits or work in the UK. To get an ID card, individuals would have to demonstrate they had a legal right to reside in the UK and verify their identity via their passport or equivalent document.

It resurrects a plan that the former prime minister introduced when he was in government but which was repealed as soon as David Cameron’s coalition government took power in 2010 following opposition from human rights lawyers, activists, security professionals and IT experts.

The proposal follows a doubling to more than 14,200 in the number of migrants reaching the UK in small boats across the Channel. There are estimated to be between 310,000 to 500,000 illegal migrants living in the UK, on top of a backlog of more than 100,000 awaiting an asylum decision.

“The UK is an attractive destination partly because parts of our labour market are under-regulated, which means it is easier to work in the informal economy (and therefore disappear off the radar) than in countries where you must prove your right to work and reside,” said the report.

“Common sense would suggest that this continues to represent a significant pull factor for those seeking to attempt dangerous journeys to the UK.”

A poll of 1,055 adults for the report showed 55 per cent backed some form of digital ID verification, with 28 per cent opposed. Half said the Government’s Rwanda asylum scheme deporting migrants to the central African nation was unworkable and unlikely to deter Channel crossings.

The report, written by Harvey Redgrave, a former deputy director in Mr Blair’s strategy unit, said that instead the Government should create new “asylum visas” that people could apply for at UK embassies abroad.

Embassies would be beefed up with staff to establish if asylum seekers’ applications had a reasonable chance of success and, if so, they could be granted a permit to travel to the UK to have their claim resolved.

'Humanitarian visa' scheme

The “humanitarian visa” scheme would be capped annually and targeted at those nations that accounted for the largest numbers of Channel migrants.

The quid pro quo for the new legal route into the UK would be that anyone seeking to arrive in Britain without having applied through a managed route would be automatically deemed inadmissible and face deportation.

“To enforce these rules credibly, the Government needs to urgently negotiate a new agreement with the EU (or selected EU countries) covering the safe returns of those who have had their asylum claims rejected or been deemed inadmissible, for example because they arrived in a safe EU country first,” said the report.

This would also have to be backed up with a new agreement on joint operations against smugglers and traffickers.

Mr Redgrave said: “In combining a safe route for asylum with a tough approach to spontaneous arrivals our proposals will deliver the compassion and control that the UK public wants.”