Reports say that thousands of immigrants have been given “Squatters’ Rights after they have fulfilled their span of 14 years of illegal stay in the UK. The right has been granted to stay in the UK now.

Sounds strange, but a rule that was passed in the year 2003 by Labour gives these migrants the right to seek residence status provided they have effectively dodged the immigration authorities for a span of 14 years. Also, they can be failed asylum seekers who handled to shun deportation. Others would be those illegal workers who were recruited during the black economy for a span of more than a decade now. These are people who are not involved in any tax paying exercise or national insurance.

Hence, reports have confirmed that almost two thousand people have been given the freedom to stay indefinitely every year – on the basis of the fact that they have been able to stay here for long.

Further, it has been said that applicants whose applications have been approved would get the right to stay in the UK on an indefinite period, along with working rights and avail other remunerations.

Critics are not in favor of this “not-so well-known” rule. They are constantly referring of taking advantage of this rule, with more and more people taking benefit of it in a wrong way. They believe that people linked with criminal activities or have abuse the system in some way or another can misuse the rule too. They think that it is just not fair that why someone who is living illegally in the UK should qualify to get benefits of the Welfare State.

Already thousands of illegal immigrants (who have almost completed their mandatory span in the UK) have applied for this benefit again, hence augmenting the number further.