Illegal Immigration 'Crackdown'

New initiative on illegal immigration in the UK four hundred and forty police officers are being brought in.

People-trafficking and all its associated evils is one of the fastest-growing and most vicious crimes, yet the government's policy so far has been one of neglect.
David Davis
Shadow home secretary

Home Secretary, John Reid, has unveiled plans for 800 new immigration staff an increase of 25%.

In the plan, Britons involved in people-smuggling will be arrested, the public will be encouraged to report suspects and firms will face larger fines.

The 400 police constables and 40 sergeants moving across to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate will be joined by 360 newly-recruited immigration officers.

But police are "badly needed" on the beat, say the Conservatives, whilst the Lib Dems want "new, not redeployed" staff.

However, a Home Office spokeswoman insisted: "We are very clear that we do not want this to have an impact on police officers' frontline work. There won't be any police officers taken off the front line.

But shadow home secretary, David Davis, criticised the government's record on the subject.

"Over the last nine years, we have actually seen immigration officers instructed not to arrest illegal immigrants, merely to meet the prime minister's artificial targets on removing failed asylum-seekers. People-trafficking and all its associated evils is one of the fastest-growing and most vicious crimes, yet the government's policy so far has been one of neglect."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said: "a truly integrated border force" is needed rather than to "shift police officers away from their current duties. The government itself has admitted it would cost 104m to secure every port of entry into this country. Clegg goes on to ask: "Why then has John Reid failed to announce any new funding while tens of thousands of pounds a day are wasted on identity cards?"

Crimestoppers

Under the plans, members of the public will - for the first time - be able to report illegal workers and illegal immigrants using the free Crimestoppers telephone line from 1 January.

I'm fearful that's going to lead to discrimination against anybody who looks as though they might be a foreigner
Keith Best
Chief Executive
Immigration Advisory Service

The government has already said it would be doubling the budget for deportations to nearly 300m, and a bill tackling deportations was included in last week's Queen's Speech.

And, by the end of 2007, ministers intend to create 650 extra detention spaces for illegal immigrants

The measures are seen as a response to criticism from political opponents about a perceived failure to deport enough of those identified as being in the UK illegally.

There were nearly 5,000 deportations in the last three-month period for which figures were available - a record - but it estimated that 500,000 people remain in the UK illegally.

Penalising Businesses

The idea of penalising businesses is apparently not favoured by the Immigration Advisory Service, which said firms would become "reluctant to recruit anybody".

If you should have any questions or views concerning Work Permit, Visa Extensions, Leave to Remain or need help finding staff please photography Charles Kelly infoimmigrationmatters.co.uk.

For regular immigration updates see: immigrationmatters.co.uk

HOW 2 COME TO THE UK to Live Work Study or Visit by Charles Kelly & Cynthia Barker2005 ISBN 0-9546338-3-0.

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Charles Kelly is a registered Immigration Adviser and Co Author of How 2 Come to the UK to Live Work Study or Visit.

Why eMarketing Matters

The Internet has long since passed the buzzword stage of business adaptation. It is now recognized as an integral part of any new successful business venture. While the Internets business value has become ubiquitous in industry journals and classroom texts, very few businesses truly understand why successful eMarketing, and not simply a Web presence, may be the true path to Internet business nirvana.

If you build it, they will come only works in the movies

In this respect doing business on the Internet is no different than its brick and mortar counter-part. Its not the old-school business 101 mantra of location, location, location, but rather the new-school mantra of visibility, visibility, visibility. Of the billions of pages existing in the Internets ethereal online universe only 16% are indexed by search engines (source: Web Developers Journal). This is in high contrast to the 73% of customers who use search engines to find new Web sites (source: Jupiter Media). If your potential customers cant locate your site it becomes that much more difficult for them to purchase your services or goods.

However, search engines arent the only way to drive traffic to your site. A successful eMarketing approach will be integrated to drive traffic through multiple channels. Press releases can drive interested consumers from online news placements, white papers will help turn researchers into purchasers, online advertising (banner ads, newsletter sponsorships, etc.) can entice prospective clients from other sites to browse your wares as well, viral marketing and Web-based guerrilla marketing campaigns can bring tremendous brand awareness and drive results, but are a notoriously finicky audience. Businesses with established customer relationships, especially in the b2c realm, can repeatedly tap their existing client base to drive new traffic and increase sales through active e-mail engagements that entice customers to make impulse purchases multiple times throughout the year.

Businesses can also effectively use offline ad campaigns to drive new visitors to your site. This is inherently a bit more difficult as you are requiring customers to remember your Web site address, which is not always easy. The most effective offline campaigns are integrated with online campaigns to take a comprehensive approach to customer engagement. A targeted direct mailing with personalized e-mail and telephone follow-ups that drive clients to a Web-based demo of services will ultimately attain much better results than the more limited traditional mail-only approach.

In short there is more to eMarketing than a Web site presence and an integrated eMarketing approach is the only way to ensure that your business reaches the widest possible target audience and successfully achieves online nirvana.

Adam Harrell is the President and COO of NeboWeb (NeboWeb digital cameras).