It is the fifth major[according to whom?] piece of legislation relating to immigration and asylum since 1993.
Commencement Orders
Although the Act received
Royal Assent on 30 March, its provisions did not take effect immediately, until a series of commencement orders brought the provisions into force incrementally:
The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (Commencement No. 2) Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/2226 (C. 75)), made on 13 August 2006, enacted the bulk of the Act's provisions including the sections on variation of
leave to enter or remain, removal, grounds of appeal, failure to provide documents, refusal of leave to enter, deportation, continuation of leave, consequential amendments, code of practice, discrimination: code of practice, documents produced or found, fingerprinting, attendance for fingerprinting, searches: contracting out, information: embarking passengers, inspection of detention facilities, capacity to make nationality application, arrest pending deportation, refugee convention: construction, refugee convention:certification, detained persons: national minimum wage. It also repealed sections of the
Prison Act 1952 (c.52),the
Immigration Act 1971 (c.77), the
Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and the
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (c.41).
The Act introduced a number of changes to the immigration appeals process, most notably restricting the right of appeal for refusal of entry clearance in cases where the subject intends to enter the country as a dependent, a visitor or a student.
This leaves the only grounds for appeal open to human rights and race discrimination reasons. Appeals launched within the UK can be for
asylum cases only.
Employment
The Act introduces civil (not criminal) penalties in the form of
fines for employers who take on people over the age of 16 who are subject to immigration control (that is, have no entry clearance or leave to remain, or no valid permit to work in the UK).
Information
The Act allows immigration officers to request and obtain
biometric data (such as
fingerprints) from immigration arrivals for the purposes of proving they are the rightful holder of their passport or travel documents.
It allows the police to request and obtain advance information on passengers and crew of flights and ships arriving in or leaving the United Kingdom, or those expected to do so.
The Act contains several provisions
empowering the Home Secretary to deprive a person of British citizenship (or
Right of Abode) if it is considered that such deprivation is "conducive to the public good".
Notable applications of the Act
Australian
Guantánamo Bay inmate
David Matthew Hicks applied for British citizenship in 2005 after the previous 2002 legislation allowed citizenship by virtue of maternal heritage. It was considered that the British government may petition for his release as had been done for other British nationals. After a lengthy court battle with the
Home Office, Hicks was granted British citizenship on 5 July 2006, but then stripped of it several hours later under section 56 of the Act allowing the
Home Secretary to "deprive a person of a citizenship status if the Secretary of State is satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good."[2]