TONY Blair has declared a tough clampdown on illegal asylum seekers - with measures to ensure they are removed from Britain.
The government outlined plans to cut the number of cheats - including fingerprinting, ID cards and orders to airlines to check people coming into the country.
The announcement came as it was revealed that the massive backlog of asylum applications cost the government nearly '2bn last year.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said swift removal of those not entitled to be in this country was central to the credibility of the whole system.
He said: "Although we have removed many more failed asylum seekers and other immigration offenders than ever before, we intend substantially to increase the number in future."
He announced a faster process for applications, detaining more people, using electronic tags on others, and taking special measures against people who destroy passport documents.
Mr Clarke said: "We will continue to welcome genuine refugees, supporting the 1951 Geneva Convention.But we will also use ID cards to provide a simple and secure way of verifying identity, helping us to tackle illegal working, organised crime, terrorist activity, identity theft and fraudulent access to public services.
"We will continue to crack down hard on organised immigration crime which targets the most vulnerable, the poorest and the young."
In a foreword to the five-year strategy for dealing with asylum and immigration, Mr Blair promised to enforce strict controls.
He said: "There will be a new drive to prevent illegal entry, to crack down on illegal working and a tough policy of removals for those who should not be here.
Evidence
"There will be on-the-spot fines for employers who collude with illegal immigration. We will fingerprint visitors who need visas and those planning longer stays before they arrive.
"We will, where necessary, use our powers to demand financial bonds from migrants in specific categories where there has been evidence of abuse, to guarantee their return home.
"And over time, we will move towards the point where it becomes the norm that those who fail can be detained, and removals become easier."
But the moves caused an immediate row, with the Tories claiming that Britain's asylum and immigration system was in chaos, and former trade union leader Sir Bill Morris criticising Tories and Labour for engaging in a bidding war over who can be "nastiest" to asylum seekers.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee, whose members included Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly until she became Education Secretary, said that with 64,000 applications in the pipeline, the Home Office should speed up the system so that more asylum seekers could be kicked out, saving up to '500m.
The MPs specifically looked into the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate, whose objective is to process applications efficiently, focusing on those genuinely fleeing persecution by taking speedy decisions and supporting the applicants in the meantime.
The Directorate spent '1.86bn last year, including '1bn in supporting asylum seekers. In addition, '101m was spent on dealing with appeals and '146m on legal aid.
The committee say the number of asylum applications built up to an "unhealthy" backlog of 130,000 in 1999.
The chairman, Tory MP Edward Leigh, said: "Since then, they have made significant progress and reduced the backlogs in asylum applications to 63,700.
"But there is considerable scope for the Home Office to speed up decision-making."
What do you think of Labour's new stance on asylum seekers? Have your say.
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So Mr Blair has decided he'd better do something about mass immigration after ignoring it for years? Yeh right! Everything his government has done has been ineffectual -probably deliberately so - but now in his desperation to cling onto power he tells us he can produce a rabbit out of the hat. Pull the other one Tony - until we ditch your beloved ECHR twaddle we'll get nowhere.
if labours clampdown on asylum, is as good as the clampdown on crime britain will sink under the weight of asylum seekers
I agree with Ian. I think your average man and woman in the street, cannot understand why the Goverment has not been tougher on these economic migrants, maybe the legally aided appeals procedures help their mates in the legal profession to feather their nests at our expense?
What about migrants who bribe government officials to get their entry "fast-tracked"? And what is the plan for immigrants who pull strings with friends in the Home Office to get into the country?
As an immigrant, what measures are in place to protect me from bureaucratic incompetence and arbitrary indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial?
I think tony blairs gov is been pushed by conservrtives to use the same stricked quotas but is a diffrent saying for 1 electronic tagingin is one of the worst human rights abouse in this age
About bloody time..I'm sick and tired of this country of ours, pandering to everybody elses whim but our own!!!
i think that tony blair should admit that he has got it wrong.i vote conservative.keep immagration to the minimum the u.k is a small island there is a whole wide world out there. if they are in desperate need we can help as a country and a world.........
not practical to fast treck asylum since these poeple in some cases need time to write thier cases.
The govt's foreign policies of attacking stable govt like Iraq backfires. the poeple from Iraq are not suppose to be sent home since there is no peace there in Iraq.
In Zimbabwe the situation is getting waste and yet the govt is removing fialed asylum Zimbabweans from uk
Would the government please give the 1.8 Billion to O.A.P. who need it and deserve it more
The proposals are a lot of rubbish.
It is just spin to allay public fears.
Nothing effective will be done they just hope to fool the electorate.
It is exactly the same as their much vaunted "crackdown" on crime.
I hope the public sees through it
This ameteur government has made mistake after mistake since 1st may 1997, and only now just before an election are they fool enough to think the british public , whome they despise, will start to believe their quick fix ideas on asylum . Blair and his crooks have ruined this great country and the sooner people wake up and put back the tories the better
If I did not know better I would be under the impression that the Govt was in the pay of the "People Traffickers" over the last 7 years
Labour's latest initiative is too little too late. They have eight years to sort this out and its gone from bad to worse under them.Steve Moxon the Sheffield Home Office whistle blower said the system was in chaos and he was told to just wave immigrants through.
In the sixties Harold Wilson said the world does not owe Britain a living, which is true, but it's equally true that Britain does not owe the world the right of abode whithin its shores!
I wonder what has brought this taboo subject out into the open with the so called mainstream parties all of a sudden, could it be the growing popularity of the British National Party
This so-called government hasn't a clue. Up until Labour came to power, we had excellent embarkation control, counting those who came and went. Then in 1998 a certain Mike O'Brien abolished it in order to save a measly B#3 Million. What can you say?