General Election Debates - Liberal Democrat Party

[DJKillaQueen]

That's rubbish..the same amount and effort and resources could be used to find them and deport them. People are fed up of being told this - 'oh the problem is too big so let's just let them stay here' and take jobs while those who are legally here or better still born here, are left unemployed. Not to mention the cost to the taxpayer in benefits to those become unemployed instead of doing black market jobs, or better still keep their black market jobs and claim benefits too.

Oh and then there's the message that would be sent to other aspiring illegal migrants. Just give more money to the Police and other agencies so that they can do a more effective job in finding these people, and keeping them out in the first place.

You are completely out of touch with public opinion James and you can't depend on hung parliaments everytime there's an election.

[Huguenot]

I don't think that's true.

The benefit of an amnesty is that it incentivises self-declaration.

Applying even massive resources couldn't possibly achieve the same effect.

[DJKillaQueen]

I think that's true too. But only those without any blemish would self declare and it would do nothing to deter future illegal migrants from crossing half of europe (even though they are supposed to claim asylum in the first country) to get here.

I think what's really neeeded is an overhual of the european laws on illegal migration because half of europe ignore them anyway. Plus we need to process illegal migrants far more quickly. It's ludicrous that appeal after appeal can drag on for years giving more than ample opportunity to 'disappear'. The whole student visa system needs tightening up, along with closing down all the bogus colleges/ courses that start up, to accomodate what is essentially a scam in trafficking ultimately illegal migrants. It all just needs tougher regulation and faster processing, which means resources. You'll never eradicate it completely but we can do far better than we have been doing so far.