Chandigarh: There will be a ten-year ban on fresh applications from illegal immigrants to Britain seeking legal entry into that country, a senior British diplomat said here today.

"The British government has introduced harsher penalties for illegal immigration including a 10-year-ban on any illegal immigrant from making a fresh application even for legal immigration in future", British Deputy High Commissioner to India Creon Butler told reporters here today.

Another step introduced to curb illegal immigration was to impose heavy penalties on employers who engage illegal immigrants for work.

He said the recent changes in immigration laws and procedures were not to discourage immigration to Britain but to make it more transparent.

"Illegal migration is critical to us. The only way that we want migration to take place is the legal way. We are determined to ensure that illegal immigration is not successful," Butler said.
Source : PTI