Submitted by crinadmin on
 The children of overstayers will be allowed to go to school under an amendment the Government has made to an immigration bill Parliament is dealing with. Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said during a debate tonight the Government didn't want children to be penalised by their parents' actions. "What this effectively does is allow the Minister of Education to allow these children to go to school while their parents' immigration status is sorted out," he said. Dr Coleman said the Government was not indicating that sending children to school was a path to gaining residence, but children should not be penalised. Labour's immigration spokesman, Pete Hodgson, congratulated the Government for changing the law. "There seem to have been many instances of kids who weren't going to school," he said. "It doesn't fix the problem entirely because parents might not want to send the children to school, but as I understand it they can go to school free of charge." The amendment has been put into the 524-page Immigration Bill, a rewrite of immigration law which has been several years in the making.
Further information