Britain issued the first ID cards to foreign nationals yesterday with the start of a controversial multi-billion pound scheme.
Britain issued the first ID cards to foreign nationals yesterday with the start of a controversial multi-billion pound scheme.
Students and those who enter the country on marriage visas will now be required to apply for one of the new biometric cards.
Initially, only those from outside the European Economic Area will be affected but the government expects to issue cards to 90% of all foreign nationals by 2016.
Protests against the scheme were held yesterday in Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, Liverpool and Sheffield.
Campaign group NO2ID and the No Borders Network demonstrated outside the Home Office Immigration Centre in Govan, Glasgow, to highlight the card's impact.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "In time, identity cards for foreign nationals will replace paper documents and give employers a safe and secure way of checking a migrant's right to work and study in the UK.
"The first identity cards for foreign nationals demonstrate our commitment to preventing immigration abuse and protecting the prosperity of the UK."
The scheme aims to protect against identity fraud, illegal working and immigration, crime and terrorism.
Tom Hadley, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's director of external relations, said: "Recruitment professionals working in the front line of the UK labour market play an increasingly pivotal role in checking the identity, background and status of individual job seekers. We welcome the extensive communication programme which has accompanied this card."
Over the next few years the scheme will be expanded to include Britons, starting with staff who work at Manchester and London City airports but critics of the cards remain unimpressed.
Dominic Grieve, shadow home secretary, said: "This is a gimmick but it's a gimmick with a price. While these ID cards won't stop illegal immigration or terrorism, they'll land the taxpayer with a multi-billion pound bill. At a time of economic hardship this is the last thing they need."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights campaign group Liberty , said: "ID cards do as little credit to the government's commitment to privacy and race equality as they do to the national bank balance."
