Raids on restaurants, building firms and other companies illegally employing immigrants in the UK are to be increased as part of the plan to stop the “small boats” crisis, says Yvette Cooper.
The Home Secretary also stressed that more covert operations would be launched against crime gangs behind the cross-Channel crossings.
French government chiefs, including the Mayor of Calais, have argued that Britain is an “El Dorado” for migrants as there is not a universal ID card system and it is easier for them to work illegally compared to other European countries.
Ms Cooper stressed that migrants in the UK illegally could not claim benefits.
But she added: “We do think that there needs to be much stronger action and enforcement against illegal working, including against employers who are exploiting people and making profits out of migration.
“That is why this summer we launched a major new programme to increase action against illegal working, increasing raids, increasing enforcement,” she added, speaking on BBC radio.
“That has led to an increase in fines...against employers, stronger action being taken against employers.
“We want to continue upgrading that.”
The Home Office warns bosses that they could be jailed for five years and be hit with an unlimited fine if they are found guilty of employing someone who they knew or had “reasonable cause to believe” did not have the right to work in the UK.
This could include if the employer had any reason to believe that their workers:
- Did not have leave (permission) to enter or remain in the UK
- Their leave had expired
- They were not allowed to do certain types of work
- Their papers were incorrect or false
Firms can also be given a civil penalty fine of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker they employ if they fail to do proper checks on them to ascertain if they have the right to work in the UK.
But French ministers have criticised the UK’s labour laws and Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said: “At some point, we’re going to have to have a showdown with this government” to avoid “in fifty years’ time (being) still at the same level, with people wanting to go to England because it continues to be an El Dorado.”
Didier Leschi, Director of the French Office of Immigration and Integration, has also argued: “The issue for England is to have an internal system that appears to be an El Dorado - and probably wrongly so - since it’s a country where you can work very easily without having a residence permit.”
The Prime Minister stressed that “upstream work” was behind Italy’s success in reducing by around two thirds the number of migrants risking their lives by seeking to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to reach the southern European country.
Visiting a co-ordination centre for the crackdown on migration, he said: “I’ve long believed, by the way, that prevention and stopping people traveling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue.
“So I am very interested to know how that upstream work went, looking, of course, at other schemes, looking forward to my bilateral with the prime minister this afternoon, but we’ve already got a shared intent to work together on this trade, this vile trade, of pushing people across borders.”
Ms Cooper emphasised that Italy had focused on migration prevention work with countries across North Africa to stop boats leaving Tunisia and other countries, targeting criminal gangs, stronger enforcement, and swift returns of failed asylum seekers.
“In each of those three areas, we are also working to do prevention work, to do much stronger law enforcement and we have also increased returns over the summer,” she said.
“The rules need to be respected and enforced.”
On dismantling the criminal gangs, she added: “We do want to use greater covert techniques, things like covert cameras and operations, and investing substantial sums in upgrading our intelligence and analytical services.”
More broadly on addressing the “small boats” crisis, she added: “We think the biggest changes that we can make in tackling this problem is by going after the criminal gangs and by having proper enforcement work under way right across Europe.
“That is why we are upgrading the enforcement work, recruiting additional police, security officers to go after the gangs, with new technology in place as well.”
Martin Hewitt, a former chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and ex-Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, has been appointed to run a new Border Security Command which will co-ordinate the UK’s response and be empowered to lead joint investigations with other countries.
Ms Cooper also stressed that more work would be done to stop boats that have been launched into the Channel from leaving shallow waters and then risking lives as the depths get deeper.
The French authorities have been accused of failing to do enough to stop often unseaworthy inflatable boats, overcrowded with men, women and children, from leaving northern France and heading into deep, perilous waters.
On Sunday, French authorities said eight people had died trying to cross the Channel after their boat got into difficulty, bringing the death toll in attempted crossings to 46 since the start of the year.
