‘The right to walk the streets’: Looking for illegal migration on the streets and stations of the UK and Germany Lea Sitkin is a DPhil student at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford. This article compares the legal framework and enforcement of public or ‘street’ identity checks in the UK and Germany. These are checks performed in public — on streets, on buses, in train stations — with the purpose of uncovering migration offences.1 The article finds important differences between the two countries in the institutions involved in enforcement, in the concentration of identity checks across the countries, and in the role of race. It suggests that these differences are attributable to geographical positioning, distinct conceptions of the role of the state, Britain’s colonial history versus the ‘temporary’ nature of migration to Germany, and the enduring effect in Germany of Nazism on public discussions of state discrimination. The article supplements an analysis of legislation and policy guidelines with a literature review, interviews with enforcement agents and NGOs, data requested under the Freedom of Information Act and criminal justice statistics. Public raids: the legal framework a). United Kingdom In the UK, both the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the police carry out public identity checks for illegal immigrants. The involvement of the UKBA, however, is relatively recent. Until the 1970s, detection of potential deportees was seen as a matter largely for the police,2 and although the UKBA developed a permanent inland enforcement team in the 1980s they did not use their powers of arrest as a matter of policy. It was not until the 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. mid 1990s — and especially, since the establishment of independent arrest teams in 2002 — that the UKBA has become more proactive. As before, the police retain a ‘key role’3 in the immigration control system. Today, the UKBA conducts Street Operations or ‘StOps’ either on their own or as part of police-led ‘Crime Reduction Operations’ (‘CrOps’) where there is suspicion that immigration crime will be uncovered alongside other crimes. These kinds of identity checks have been reported on the London Underground,4 a number of train, bus, and coach stations across the country,5 in Cardiff shopping centre6 and on a high street in Camberwell where an informal labour exchange was suspected.7 ‘Operation Chefornak’ saw fortnightly raids targeting Roma beggars in Marble Arch in the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games8 and a joint UKBA-police initiative also lead to checks on the mostly Latin American audience at a Reggaeton festival in Elephant and Castle. Street raids are fairly low priority for the UKBA. Compared to the hundreds of workplace raids conducted by the UKBA yearly and the 21,298 persons served papers by the UKBA as immigration offenders in the UK,9 only 8 public transport hubs had been subject to Stops and Crops in 2010-201110 and 32 street-based operations in 2011-2012, of which 19 were in Hammersmith Broadway alone.11 Although public ID operations like these are allowed under British law, they are highly circumscribed. UKBA guidance prohibits inland ‘fishing exercises’, questioning random people who might be irregular migrants.12 In particular, immigration officers cannot use racial appearance as a reason for making a check. Instead there These do not include workplace raids, visits to private residences, nor identity checks carried out in the process of other criminal enforcement activities. Immigration: Detection of Illegal Entrants. HL Deb 22 July 1970, vol 311, cc974-6. Association of Chief Police Officers. East Midlands Region Regional Immigration Arrest Policy. Available at: www.lincs.police.uk/Library/Freedom-of-Information/Publication-Scheme/Our-Policies-And-Procedures/Immigration-Policy.pdf Newham Monitoring. (2012). Nineteen Years Fighting for Justice. Available at: www.nmp.org.uk/2012/02/nineteen-years-fighting-forjustice.html Freedom of information request (FOI) 20568. Migrant Rights Network. (2011) The Fighting Net of Intelligence. Available at: www.migrantsrights.org.uk/blog/2011/04/fishing-netintelligence UKBA. (2012).Thirty Six arrested following illegal working operation in West London. Available at: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2012/june/45-operation-west-london City of Westminster. (2012). Operation Chernofak. Available at: www.westminster.gov.uk/services/policingandpublicsafety/crimeandlawenforcement/whatsbeingdone/begging/ FOI 22081. FOI 20568. FOI 23978. UKBA. Chapter 31 Enforcement Visits. Available at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/enforcement/oemsectione/chapter31?view=Binary Issue 205 Prison Service Journal 29