Thread: Migrants get 'squatters' rights' to stay in UK if they've stayed 14 years

Good or bad, what are your views please?

Could be a good thing, finally they get to pay taxes, the children educated, NI contributions.


Thousands of immigrants have been granted 'squatters' rights' to stay in the UK - after living here illegally for 14 years.

Under a little known rule up to 2,000 have been allowed to remain indefinitely every year - simply because they have been here for so long.

A law passed by Labour in 2003 gives them the right to claim residence if they have successfully evaded the immigration authorities for 14 years.

Anyone whose application is approved gets the right to stay indefinitely, working rights and full access to benefits.

Many will be failed asylum seekers who have never been deported. Other will be illegal workers employed in the black economy for more than a decade, paying no tax or national insurance.

Critics branded the law a 'slow motion amnesty'. Worryingly, the numbers taking advantage of the rule have increased by 120 per cent since its first full year.

And there are fears the total could spiral in coming years as thousands of illegal migrants who arrived in the last decade apply.

The figures will raise concerns criminal behaviour - including people who have sneaked into the country or abused the system - is being rewarded.

Something I heard the other day and I don't know if it's true, if they lose their passport once arrived in the UK they cannot be exported? I heard this from a very valid source but it seems a bit to easy.