Campaigners, including many church groups, have been encouraged by a study that an amnesty for many of the 600,000 illegal migrants in Britain could provide a £3 million boost to the economy.

It is far too easy to dismiss as ‘naïve’ the latest calls to consider an amnesty for unregistered migrants, says Vaughan Jones. It is current policies which are avoiding the facts, lacking humanity and missing the point.

Long-term unregistered migrants to Britain should be given citizenship, says the most senior figure in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The comments came after the Mayor of London mooted an amnesty for 'illegals'.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has called for the government to consider an amnesty for illegal immigrants in the UK.