Africa: UK Border Policy Decreases Migrant Civil Liberties

23 July 2009
opinion

Although the UK government's new e-Borders policy will apply to all travellers leaving the country, Tendai Marima argues that its biggest impact will be on people who have been 'historically targeted as public enemy number one by race, nationality or class'. As a non-British citizen with a temporary residence permit, Marima fears the policy is yet another manifestation of a growing 'unwelcomeness' towards immigrants, and a portent that the state will place further limitations on 'the right of the stranger'.

As of September 2009, the UK Border Agency will begin to institute its e-Borders policy. This policy states that everyone leaving the country will be required to submit 53 pieces of personal information relating to their travels. It is argued that it does not contravene UK data and information legislation and is seen by UK as a protective rather than invasive measure. In terms of state resources, it translates to £400 million that the traveller will pay for through ticket taxes. It is deeply ironic and troubling that gainfully employed people work to pay taxes to prop up a system that violates the individual's right to privacy and freedom of movement. Such is the peculiarly contradictory and oppressive nature of state politics; which is by no means a UK phenomenon but a universal condition that operates in ways as multiplicitous as they are complex.

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