National Laws of the UK - Essay Example

? Public International Law No: Answer National Laws of UK UK nationality law is the law which deals with the issue of citizenship and other categories associates with it. The law is complex and cumbersome in view of its historical status as an imperial power of the world. The Nationality Act 1948 determines the status of UK people and the citizenship of subjugated colonies. However, until the early 1960s the citizens of the British had the right to enter and live in the United Kingdom at any time1. However, during the years 1962 and 1971, the immigration from commonwealth countries was immense specifically from Asia and Africa. To stop the influx of the people from the mentioned countries, the Immigration Act 1971 came into being. According to which only those Britishers who have strong links with the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man had the right to abode, live and seek employment in the United Kingdom and the cited Islands2. Gone are the days when Indians, Africans and the Carribians were on the priority list of job seekers in the United Kingdom. The people of mentioned countries joined Armed Forces and Factories to help the Britishers to fight against their enemies in the World War-II and to produce war related products. Another factor of migration to Britain on the mass scale was the wages of working in the Armed Forces and the Factories, which were higher in Britain as compared to their homelands3. International Laws The International Law, unlike national laws has to address certain laws, rules and regulations, customs (interaction with the people of different countries), respective governments, businesses entities besides rights and responsibilities in dealing with the sovereign states. The apex body responsible for making international laws must take into consideration the international norms; agreements; treaties; accords, UN charters, protocols; tribunals; memoranda’s; legal precedents of the International Court of Justice etc to adhere and to abide by the member countries4. The diverse legal systems and different historical backgrounds of different countries have compelled the countries to address international law including common law and civil law. It covers all the aspects of domestic laws, substantive laws, procedures and the remedies. The international law is heavily dependant on a) Principle of Comity  b) State Doctrine and c) Sovereign Immunity5.  Keeping in mind the importance of International law, the developed world hires to address international issues in many of its agencies. The prominent entities are a) State Department b) Commerce and Environmental Protection Agency. There are number of lawyers who are working in a) United Nations b) World Bank c) Bureaus of American States d) International tribunals e) International Court of Justice and f) certain intergovernmental establishments. Apart from that mentioned above, there are NGOs who keep an eye on the international issues, including but not limited to, development activities, protection of human rights, environment laws, power sector, trade, arms control, drugs, human trafficking and transitional justice6.   National Laws of USA According to the US Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) “any person who is not a citizen or a national of the United States is considered as Immigrant.” U.S. Immigration law further provides a detailed guidance to the immigrants in terms of residence and naturalized citizenship, wherein they will avail full citizenship rights. It includes regulatory body, which deals with the immigrants, who intend to enter in the US with reference to how long he or she will remain in the country and when he will leave the country7. As far as the duties and obligations of US law enforcers are concerned, they can be termed as shared responsibilities. For example, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking care of its responsibilities towards a) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) b) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and c) U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement (CBE). The responsibilities of DHS amongst other things are the i) investigations, naturalization, political asylum, permanent residence and border patrolling. However, the US State Department manages the affairs of the Embassies and Consulates around the world8. Declaration The declaration of Acastus is the reflection of strong anti-immigration program of the country. This declaration is aimed at to discourage the entry of foreign workers. The bill in question presented by the President of Acastus, Matthew Rommie, became law on 1st December 2011. According to the law, a migrant worker will be considered eligible to remain in Acastus on the condition that he or she receives a certificate of integration, which would be delivered by the authorities of the county where he or she lives. In relation to this, the certificate of integration will be issued to the migrant workers by the competent authority provided that the immigrant workforce completes 1,000 hours of unpaid community service to contribute to the economic development of Acastus9. Article 11 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families prohibits forced and compulsory labour in Acastus in order to align it with international convention since the country ratified it on 2 December 2011. However, the embargo on forced or compulsory labour is not applicable to unpaid community services rendered by the emigrant workers to show their willingness. Impact The immediate impact of this law is that if the migrated workers do not pursue for the integration certificate, they will have to leave the country. Non-compliance will lead to expulsion or imprisonment as the case may be. This declaration will have a positive impact on the domestic population in terms of resource allocation. Answer 2 Immigration law refers to the policies of a government, which control the influx of immigrants to their country. However, nationality law deals with the issue of citizenship of a foreigner. The mentioned laws vary from state to state. While making these laws, the countries take into account the economic and the political scenarios, which may or may not attract immigrants10. We all agree that the laws in question are governed by the International Law. Therefore, all countries allow entry to its own citizens under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights11. There are few countries in the world who have introduced strict laws on immigration to become most unfavoured country for the illegal immigrants. However, most countries around the world start a process of naturalization by which, the immigrants may have the opportunity to become citizens of the respective state12. Acastus and Radius both are sovereign states and are bound to abide by the International law. The laws in question are perused and approved by the member states. Theresa April, the Radiusian Home Secretary, is very rightly pointed out that “the sovereign right of Radius to do what it can to protect itself, and we will not let foreigners dictate us what to do.” It cannot be treated as violation of the International Law. Moreover, the international law provides an opportunity to the sovereign states to make changes / amendments which suits to meet their requirement. If we look at it with this angle, it makes us believe that the law in question does restrict sovereign country to desirable changes. The decision of the home secretary cannot be termed as violation of International Laws. However, the international laws kept mum on the question of maintainability of agreements between the two sovereign states. It does not provide any guidance with regard to the changes suggested by the Home Secretary of Radiusian13. The laws and convention are comprehensible but they lack certain obligations on the part of states who have signed the documents with specific reference to strict adherence of the international rules and regulations. There should be a mechanism of accountability for those countries that are found violative of the laws and convention in vogue. In the presence of accountability, no sovereign state who have executed the International law, dare to violate the rules and regulations drafted and approved by the lawmakers14. The detailed discussions on the cited matter made it clear that the decision of the Home Secretary was in the best interest of her country. Further, it was not in violation of International laws. We are of the view that the International laws do not put a ban on a country if it makes amendment / modification, which suits to her country’s requirement provided that it does not frustrate the very purpose of International rules and regulations15. Answer 3 Acastus and Radius decided to set up an international organization, UNIPOL, through which both the countries tries to make the entry of illegal immigrants difficult. The decision was taken by Acastus and Radius treated in the right direction since executors of an agreement were facing problems from the people of other states, which are not party to it. The states should revisit their national law and make it more effective to handle the issue of the violators of the International Laws. Using the sovereign right of Acastus and Radius, the countries in fact, tried to protect their borders. Under the terms of agreement, expulsion of illegal people is required. Non-compliance by the immigrants will attract forced expulsion or killing when caught red handed on the spot as the case may be16. Under the mentioned scenario, the drastic action taken by both the states are not justified and in accordance with the norms of International Laws. Hence, their unfavourable action to do away with the illegal immigrants cannot be considered praise worthy steps by the developed world. According to Refugee Act of 1980, any person can migrate from one country to another country irrespective of his or her religion, nationality, race, political opinion, and returning to their homelands. In spite of the above, it is the right of the host country either to grant or to refuse visa for the foreign immigrants due to one reason or the other. Under the refugee’s Act, the government can consider refugee’s request for residency or for citizenship17. The decision taken by Acastus and Radius is lawful to the extent of expulsion. With regard to killing of illegal immigrants in case of noncompliance of the instructions can be termed harsh, inhuman and violative by all standards of human rights and International norms that confer by the United Nations. According to the Immigration national Act, any country can restrict / refuse the illegal immigrants to stay or enter into their country with fake / illegal travel documents18. Keeping in mind the menace associated with the illegal immigrant’s emigrants, a country can effectively implement the anti-immigration rules aimed at to restrict them for the said category of immigrants. Each Sovereign State of the globe discourages illegal immigrants. Due to illegal immigration in Acastus and Radius, the presidents of both the countries have decided to impose certain restrictions and deterrence to effectively stop the influx of migrants into their homeland19. The Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986 made immigration more difficult for the immigrants to find out a fertile land. In order to shun the illegal immigration to the green pasture, the Immigration Act of 1990 is there to play its effective role in reducing the entrance of illegal immigrants to considerable extent20. Any country has the right to expel / deport foreign nationals provided if they are in possession of fake or illegal travel documents. To achieve the desired goals, it is necessary for the home ministries of the respective countries to play their due roles in implementing the immigration rules effectively so that they may be in a position to curtail the migrant numbers to the acceptable level. Law enforcers should keep an eye on the illegal activities of the migratory birds in order to ensure law and order in their own countries. Any person found in illegal activities, the Acastus and Radius have the right to expel / deport that person and ensure that such person may not enter into their countries once again. Further, law enforcers if found anybody involved in illegal activities should be dealt with an iron hand in order to curb the menace21. The concept of asylum is not new to the modern world. It exists since ancient times. It translates differently in different countries and societies. According to the declaration of Hittite King in the second millennium BC with regard to refugee, “when a refugee comes from your land into mine he will not be returned to you. To return a refugee from the land of the Hittites is not right."22  We have witnessed that few countries having colonial background once upon a time were liberal in welcoming the immigrants to meet work force requirement. In this respect, we may refer to UK, France and the Netherlands wherein we have seen sizeable number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries.23 Prior to 1962, the liberal immigrant policy of the United Kingdom provided Commonwealth immigrants a golden chance to come and seek employment. The term used for colonial people under the British Nationality Act of 1948 was Commonwealth Citizens according to which, British passports designated them as citizens of “the United Kingdom and their Colonies”. With the implementation of this act, every Commonwealth Citizen automatically becomes the citizen of the UK and its associated Colonies. The Conservative Government, who took the reign of power during 1954 and 1961, was found stoppage of immigrants unnecessary and unjustified24. With the promulgation of new act, the Commonwealth citizens will enter into UK provided that a) holders of employment voucher of Ministry of Labour b) students c) members of armed forces d) self dependant and e) subject to residency qualification25. With the introduction of cited act, the racists were agitated violently in Midlands, West Midlands, Birmingham and Smethwick since these were the major avenues of employment for the cheap immigrant labourers hailing from Caribbean States26. Acastus and Radius can follow the guidelines of INA for deporting the illegally migrated workers from their country. If a person fails to abide the national, international law and to satisfy the law enforcers when caught red handed should be expelled. There are many countries of the world where human traffickers are involved in human trafficking with the connivance of strong network in and around the country on a lucrative price. This inhuman business is rampant nowadays; therefore, the respective governments should specifically focus on this menace and implement tight security measures at their entry points in order to eliminate shady business in their countries27. It is appreciable that Acastus and Radius at least came to a solution of foreign migrant’s problem. It is another thing that one of their measures to root out illegal immigrants will not be acceptable to the civilized world. As far as the deportation of an immigrant is concerned it should be done after due notice, which will be acceptable to all human rights activists but killings the illegal immigrants on the spot without due process of law will not be acceptable at all by the stakeholders of the international laws besides all walks of life28. Answer 4 Mr Obamo, the newly elected President of Acastus considered creation of UNIPOL as invalid move since it was not freely consented with either party. In his opinion, Acastus is not bound to get the needful done towards elimination of illegal immigrants. As we are aware that many people are migrated on a daily basis from one country to another country in the world, through illegal means29. It is the desire of the President that Acastus should take necessary remedial measures to deter the illegal migrants so as to make their entry into the country impossible30. It is the need of the hour that the respective governments should chalk out a comprehensive and effective plan to deal with this issue. However, both the countries according to the agreement in place, shall allow their workers to live and work freely. The migrants of other countries in case of violations of Acastus and Radiusian rules and regulations have to face the consequences at the hands of law enforcers. It could be in the form of imprisonment, sentence to death or on the spot killing by the border security forces31. Apart from the above mentioned scenarios, there are certain cases of forced migrations. These forced migrations can be linked with the worst economic or political situations that compel large number of peoples of the developing nations to migrate from their own homeland. Further, the cheap labour contributes a lot to the cost input, hence, the industrialized countries like to import cheap labour from the under developed / developing countries to place them in their factories and other avenues where their utilities can best be utilized32. According to the Act of 1917, there are few countries around the globe which conduct certain test for migration, once the applicant is qualified for the employment test, he or she will be eligible to seek work visa from respective host country to enter in their country33. We have gone through International Laws, Treaties, agreements, rules and regulations and visa seeking policies and observed that every migrant should respect the International Laws and the Domestic Laws to enter into a Sovereign State. Illegal entry into any country amounts to put their life and respect in danger. The illegal immigrants issue becomes more complex with the passage of time. To restrict the illegal immigrants, many countries are taking serious and effective remedial measures to handle it34. The case under discussion wherein we have seen that heads of both states ( Acastus and Radiusian) introduced and implemented strict measures to discourage other intending illegal immigrants. No doubt, the measures in question are harsh but if it is backed by due process of law, will bear fruit. Obamo knows that if the agreement duly signed by both the countries, is not implemented in its true spirit, it will surely encourage other illegal immigrants to come, live and seek employment wherever they like. If remedial measures become effective and successful, it may attract other countries to follow the suit of agreement duly inked by the aforesaid countries. (Word Count = 2998) Bibliography Books DD Spencer and MW Mellin, The Immigration Law of Mexico: Statute, Regulations, and Procedures Manual (Trafford Publishing, 2003). 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