LONDON -- Britain sailed into a new storm over immigration on Tuesday with a call by the opposition Conservatives to hold asylum seekers under lock and key.
The get-tough policy is the latest sign that Britain is running scared over immigration, with a rapid rise in the number of refugees angering voters and leading to fears of an increase in racially motivated crime.Conservatives accuse the Labour government of going soft on asylum, while refugee groups say both parties are reneging on Britain's long history as a friend to those fleeing persecution.
"This is not about racism," said Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram in defending his new policy. "What we are trying to suggest is a system that is going to be firm and fair."
Under the scheme, refugees would be sent to some five secure "reception centers" -- probably old army bases -- until their claims are processed. That would take about six weeks, after which those refused entry would be deported immediately.
The new policy, to be laid out by party leader William Hague on Tuesday evening, would mean a major shift in the current system, whereby refugees are dispersed into the community.
Ancram said there were currently more than 100,000 asylum cases outstanding, most of them bogus, and that processing applications cost the British taxpayer 600 million pounds ($950 million) last year alone.
Asylum is set to be a key issue in next month's local elections.
Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair says he wants to help genuine refugees; his government is busy cracking down.
The tough measures include plans to scatter immigrants across the country, often far from friends and family, pay refugees a living allowance in vouchers rather than cash, and fine truck drivers for carrying stowaways onto the island.
Campaigners for refugee rights say Britain is turning into a fortress of xenophobia. The Refugee Council called the Conservative plan "a very draconian step" and said locking up refugees could provoke attacks of the sort seen in Germany.
Barbara Roche, the minister responsible for immigration, dismissed the Hague scheme as empty rhetoric and talked up Labor's "robust but fair" alternative. "They are stirring it up. This government is sorting it out," she said.
Yet the problem is plain to see on any city corner.
Rising numbers of beggars London -- most of them from eastern and central European countries -- have led to an outspoken get-them-out campaign by some tabloids that say the country is being swamped by money-grabbing migrants.
Police say many of the beggars operate in organized rings, with women passing around swaddled babies to elicit sympathy and handing over the bulk of their earnings to male ringleaders.
The last big influx of refugees was in 1972. In august that year Ugandan President Idi Amin said all Asians of non-Ugandan citizenship must leave within 90 days. By the end of the year some 25,000 had arrived in Britain and were housed in camps.
Of about 32,000 decisions on asylum taken in 1999, Britain allowed 20,000 people to stay: 7,000 were granted asylum and some 13,000 were granted "exceptional leave" to remain.