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3/24/13, "Britain's PM Cameron unveils sweeping immigration crackdown," Reuters
"Prime Minister
David Cameron will unveil a sweeping immigration crackdown on Monday
aimed at discouraging migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving to
Britain when EU restrictions on their right to travel and work there
expire next year.
Under his plans, access to
Britain's National Health Service will be curbed, new migrants will have
to wait up to five years for social housing, fines for employers who
hire illegal workers will be doubled, and landlords who let to illegal
immigrants could face fines too.
The
lifting of European Union freedom of movement restrictions on Romanians
and Bulgarians has triggered warnings in the right-leaning press of
"hordes" of welfare-hungry migrants descending on Britain at a time when
the economy is stagnant and public resources are being squeezed.
Cameron's initiative reflects a change in the
political mainstream after years of politicians shying away from the
issue. All three main parties now talk tough on immigration after polls
showed it had become one of voters' main worries ahead of a 2015
election and a once derided anti-immigration party surged in the polls.
In
a speech that may stir controversy in Romania and Bulgaria, Cameron
will say he wants to stop Britain's welfare system being "a soft touch"
for migrants, saying that access to core public services is something
newcomers should earn rather than automatically receive.
"Net
migration needs to come down radically from hundreds of thousands a
year to just tens of thousands," he will say, outlining measures that
will apply to other EU nationals too.
.
The
UK Independence Party or UKIP, has thrived in the polls after
campaigning against "open-door" immigration, humiliating Cameron's
ruling Conservative party in a vote for a parliamentary seat three weeks
ago.
Cameron is expected to say:
"While I have always believed in the benefits of immigration I have also
always believed that immigration has to be properly controlled. "As
I have long argued, under the last government this simply wasn't the
case. Immigration was far too high and badly out of control."
He will announce new measures to make it more
difficult for nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA), which
includes Romania and Bulgaria, to claim welfare benefits after six
months. They will take effect in early 2014.
He
will also promise to close a loophole that allows some people who have
no right to work in Britain to claim benefits and subject newcomers to a
much harder test to see if they are eligible for income-related
benefits.
"Ending the something
for nothing culture needs to apply to immigration as well as welfare.
We're going to give migrants from the EEA a very clear message. Just
like British citizens, there is no absolute right to unemployment
benefit," he will say.
Under the plans, newcomers would also have to wait for up to five years before
they could join a waiting list for social housing, and face "stricter
charging" to use the health service or be obliged to have private health insurance.
"We
should be clear that what we have is a free National Health Service,
not a free International Health Service," Cameron will say....
Last Friday, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime
minister and leader of the Liberal Democrat party, the junior member of
Cameron's coalition, said Britain was considering obliging visitors from
"high-risk" countries to hand over a returnable cash bond to deter them
from overstaying their visas.
He also abandoned a promise to amnesty illegal immigrants after ten years.
Nigel
Farage, the leader of UKIP, said on Saturday that the unexpected
success of his own party had shifted the debate on immigration.
"If
UKIP had not taken on this immigration debate, the others would not be
talking about it at all," he told his party conference."
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