Government accused of overlooking illegal immigrant workers

The government has been criticised for appearing to overlook illegal immigrants seeking work in the UK in an attempt to meet targets on asylum.

According to a recent report in the Independent, employment agencies have claimed a lack of resources is “preventing the Immigration Service from investigating possible breaches of employment law”.

The news comes when only last month, Home Secretary John Reid spoke of plans to strike off company directors and seize the asset of firms caught employing illegal immigrants.

The Independent added: “Half of employment agencies surveyed for a BBC investigation that say they have raised concerns about illegal workers claim the Immigration Service did not take decisive action.”

A Home Office spokesman conceded: “Resources and operations always have to be prioritised.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said he was “astonished” by the issues the report raises. “Others will be encouraged if they believe the system is as slack as we have heard. I think the fact that this is so openly being carried on, undoubtedly reduces confidence in the system.

“Funds could be reallocated from elsewhere in the budget to tackle this very, very obvious manifestation of the failure of the system,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davies said the issue had come up “time and time again.” This comes as a direction from the highest level in Immigration and Nationality but also frankly it is known about by ministers. Ministers know it’s going on and they can’t deny it.”

He said the Home Office was “lurching from one target to another”, adding: “This is a direct outcome of government policy and is a piece of very bad management, with serious consequences to individual citizens. Vulnerable people are being looked after by people with no records whatsoever – quite the opposite of what the government claims its policy is.”

One claim made in the report came from a recruitment agency in the care and nursing sector. “It highlighted the cases of three people with false documents last year and was told by the UK Immigration Service (UKIS) to keep them in work so their whereabouts was known. After five months no action was taken, with a lack of resources allegedly cited as the reason,” the Independent stated.

The online survey of 425 recruitment agencies, conducted by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation suggested three-quarters of agencies had spotted suspect documents. A third of those who reported the documents to the UKIS said the Service was “unhelpful”.

In a statement, the Home Office said through the doubling of enforcement resources and activity it intends to introduce an “integrated cross-government approach to stamp out illegal working by 2009/10”.

It added: “The UK Immigration Service is committed to tackling illegal working and adopts an intelligence-led approach to operations. However, whilst we always seek to remove those who have no right to be here, resources and operations always have to be prioritised to maximise the number of people we remove and for reasons of public protection.”

John Tincey from the Immigration Service Union said the priorities to deal with illegal working are on the back burner. “There is no-one to do this work. There are about 1,500 immigration officers doing this work internally in the UK, compared to 140,000 operational police officers. The Immigration Service just isn’t big enough to do its job.”

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationwatchUK said: “Failure, on this scale, to take any action against illegal workers in Britain makes a mockery of the whole immigration system. We need a much swifter and more effective removal system.

“In practice, this may well mean pulling out of the international Conventions and writing our own laws on asylum and human rights. The present system is far too difficult for honest employers and much too easy for lawyers.”