if they manage to live in Britain’s black economy for long enough or are failed asylum seekers who manage to avoid deportation.After 14 years they can apply to the Home Office which considers factors such as “compassionate circumstances, strength of connection to the UK and previous criminal record”, before deciding whether an illegal immigrant will be allowed to stay.
If successful, the immigrant will then be allowed full access to the welfare state and be eligible to apply for a British passport.
Since rules changed in April 2003, 7,245 illegals have won the right to live here permanently – more than 1,000 a year on average. It is likely that many paid no income tax during the 14 years they spent in Britain.
The Home Office estimated in 2005 that the illegal immigrant population in Britain was between 310,000 and 570,000 but other groups such as Migrationwatch UK, which campaigns against mass immigration, have put the figure far higher.
Migrationwatch UK now believes the true number of illegal immigrants could be as high as one million.
Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: “What disturbs me most is how many more people will be able to establish this type of squatters’ rights to stay in this country.
“Rewarding illegal behaviour is always bad, and there ought to be a lot more effort put into stopping people getting to this 14 year level.
“One of the reasons why we want to set up a specialist border police force is to prevent people being able to stay here for many years entirely below the radar.”
Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of Migrationwatch, said: “It is wrong in principle that people who have been undercutting British workers for many years and often paying no tax should be granted full access to our welfare state.
“This is a reward for crime, provided you get away with it for long enough.”
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