England's Immigration Office

There was an article in this week's local-yocal paper the Hampshire Chronicle that made us "go hmmm". The immigration department in the US is fairly on top of things and border patrols are fairly strident. If a truck-load of illegal immigrants are discovered on US soil, they are rounded up by law enforcement officials and taken to the closest immigration office for investigation. They take it seriously. Whether or not that's a good thing can be debated until the end of time, but that's not what I'm trying to communicate right now.

I'd like to give another example of the English/American cultural differences. Now, I suppose it's not fair to assume that this is how the English immigration authorities always handle this type of situation, but you really have to wonder when you read about something like this: "Five illegal African immigrants found in the back of a lorry [truck], spent the night at North Walls police station, before being packed off to London by train the next day." When the Winchester police initially contacted the immigration office they were told to "release them with directions to the Immigration headquarters in Croydon [south London]". Hmmm... do you think they'd actually go? One would have to be very naive to answer "yes" to this question. Anyway, the Winchester police department wasn't satisfied with this arrangement. Instead, they put them on a train to Croydon the next day. "They travelled on the next train, free of charge, unescorted. The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases, and therefore could not confirm or deny whether they arrived. Insp Baxman added: 'Once immigration had made the decision, we couldn't lawfully hold them.' Fingerprints were taken in a bid to identify them, but there were no records. 'It's not the first time it has happened,' added Insp Baxman, 'Those people are in this country, but no one has any idea where they are.' Winchester police detained the Spanish lorry driver, but immigration officers told him there was not enough evidence that he had done anything wrong, so he, too, was released."

Well, that's one way of dealing with illegal immigration. Anything worth doing is worth doing right!