Our 10-point delivery plan
24 February 2009
The UK Border Agency has announced 10 wide-ranging pledges for 2009, which will help ensure that it meets its ongoing commitment to further strengthen the border, count people in and out of the country and target criminals.
Building on work already being done by the Agency to strengthen the United Kingdom's immigration controls, the pledges are as follows:
1. March 2009 - Open a new immigration removal centre to help remove immigration offenders.
Located near Gatwick in south-east England, Brook House will have the capacity to hold more than 420 immigrants found to be not playing by the rules. It will help to deliver the Government's pledge to remove more foreign national prisoners this year than ever before.
2. April 2009 - Use our points-based system to ensure that migration matches the country's needs in hard times.
The Home Secretary announced changes to the entry requirements for highly skilled and skilled migrants on 22 February.
3. April 2009 - Start charging migrants to create a multimillion-pound fund to reduce the impacts of migration on local services.
The Migration Impact Fund is being set up in response to the Government's Green Paper The path to citizenship, published in February 2008, which said that migrants should contribute "to a new fund for managing the transitional impacts of migration, providing extra financial help to communities experiencing change from migration".
4. April 2009 - Introduce new technology to help detect drugs and other illegal goods.
Since April 2008, technology used in customs checks at ports has contributed to the seizure of illegal drugs worth over £260 million.
5. May 2009 - Be tougher on European criminals, removing European nationals who cause harm to our communities.
At present, criminals from countries in Europe are not considered for deportation unless they have been sentenced to at least 24 months in jail. This threshold will be reduced to just 12 months - bringing these criminals in line with those from outside Europe - in cases involving drugs, violent or sexual offences. There are also plans to target and deport low-level, persistent foreign offenders who cause harm in their communities but have not been given a prison sentence - for example, those who have continued to offend while on community service.
6. July 2009 - Start tough new visa controls, which will cover five countries.
Nationals of Bolivia, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland and Venezuela will need a visa whenever they travel to the United Kingdom.
7. August 2009 - Have completed delivery of new facial recognition technology in 10 terminals, giving British passengers a faster, secure route through the border.
The first facial recognition gates at a British airport were installed at Manchester Airport last August.
8. November 2009 - Issue 75,000 compulsory identity cards to foreign nationals.
Identity cards were introduced in November 2008 for some categories of foreign national living in the United Kingdom, and the programme was expanded to include more categories in February 2009.
9. December 2009 - Hit target to screen 120 million passengers entering and leaving the United Kingdom against security watch-lists, and introduce a new high-tech security centre.
10. December 2009 - Deport a record number of foreign prisoners.
In 2008, more than 5,000 foreign national prisoners were removed from the United Kingdom.