Do you have anything to declare?

News today that the UK also has a problem with visitors overstaying their visas and remaining in the country illegally adds to a list of countries that worryingly cannot trace visitors, and can only presume are still present in their borders.

The UK policy on immigration has come under the spotlight this week as the Labour party was accused of not being clear on their aims and reasons, some quarters claimed the party had “led the country up the path of mass immigration without explaining the benefits.”

The policy which has been at the forefront of Labours’ time in power, and was unquestionably a personal manifesto of Tony Blair’s time in office, is being questioned as commentators try and understand why certain parts of society are empathising with the BNP.

The question being asked is how has the British National Party grown to getting two seats at the European parliament? Although this is seen as an insignificant number, the issue still remains that certain parts of the country do have sympathy’s with the view of the party.

This view that immigration is a bad thing for the UK is in contrast to that of the current government, it is thought that understanding of the benefits of immigration is key to the issue.

The new problem of people overstaying their visas has become an international debate with some estimates putting this form of illegal immigration above any other. The US claim that half of the illegal’s inside their borders arrived on tourist visas and overstayed. The view that this is happening around the world, with no solution apparent must be worrying for the governments of these countries.

Although stiff punishments for being in certain countries illegally are in place, this is obviously not a deterrent. The fact that people are willing and able to travel to a country, and then operate there without the proper permissions, is a fact that has been established. The question of how to prevent it, however, has not.

Short of putting tracking devices around everyone’s neck that enters every country you are never going to control people’s movements. The amount of money involved in detaining, then deporting these people once caught, as well as other costs, raises the question of whether the system in place is workable. UK immigration, like the rest of the world for the moment has to accept that some people entering legally will go on to stay illegally.