Blunkett to beef up immigration policy
David Blunkett has revealed that migrants from the countries joining the EU in May will have to support themselves for two years or lose their rights to residency and be forced to leave the UK.
Delivering a statement in the Commons on “EU Enlargement: Free Movement of Workers”, the home secretary reasserted the government’s position that EU enlargement is “extremely welcome and important to our country”.
From May 1st citizens from accession states will be free to travel across the borders of other EU countries. Under the treaty of accession, no EU member state has the right to interfere with the freedom of movement across EU borders, stressed Mr Blunkett.
However, he claimed that the conditions of entry should be determined to ensure the benefits system is not open to abuse. The government was therefore introducing “a coherent and sensible package of measures” to allow genuine migrants to enter the UK legally and contribute to taxes.
The UK benefited from 20,000 accession nationals, said the home secretary, while noting that the workers’ registration scheme remains a part of Britain being “one of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world”.
Concluding, the home secretary argued the plans would be “fair on our ourselves, fair on our new partners, and tough on those who abuse our system”.
Tory immigration spokesman, Humfrey Malins, described the new measures as a “panic” response after three years of inaction.
He said: “They’ve had three years to recognise that there is going to be a possible problem – three years. And it’s only nine weeks away.
“There’s something of a panic measure – a whiff of panic – in what the government are going to do.”
