A coalition of opposition parties, trade unions and civil liberties campaigners condemned the symbolic release of the pink and blue cards, which will be introduced for foreign nationals living in Britain from next month. The plastic permits, containing the personal details, fingerprints and immigration status of foreign nationals, offer the first glimpse of what ID cards for British citizens will look like.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the pressure group Liberty, predicted that the scheme would lead to court action if people from ethnic minorities were targeted: "As a daughter of migrants to this country I think it's a pretty nasty piece of politics to pick on foreign nationals first. It's a divide-and-rule approach when they cannot sell the idea of compulsory ID cards for everybody."
Phil Booth, director of the campaign group No2ID, added: "The Government are picking on soft targets."
Up to 60,000 cards, containing fingerprints as well as photographs and personal details of the holders, will be issued to people from outside the European Economic Area within the next four months. Students and married people renewing their residence visas will be targeted from 25 November, and Home Office officials expect 90 per cent of foreign nationals to hold a card by 2015.
Ministers said they expected to issue up to one million a year as the system is rolled out across the population over the next three years.
Airport workers and other employees in sensitive roles will be given ID cards from next year before they are offered to young people from 2010 and the general public from 2011. Ms Smith admitted that it would be impossible to include the fingerprints of all citizens on the planned government identity database. - link
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