Wages of illegal workers to be seized in the UK
UNITED KINGDOM – Police will be able to seize the wages of illegal workers under new laws to be proposed in next week’s Queen’s Speech, the Prime Minister will announce today.
David Cameron will say the promise is part of a wider crackdown on immigration – which will particularly focus on people who do not have permission to live in Britain.
He will also use one of his first major speeches since the election to reaffirm his ambition to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands despite failing to come anywhere close to the target during the last Parliament.
Instead of achieving the reduction that Mr Cameron once called a “no ifs, no buts” pledge, the coalition oversaw a huge spike in the numbers to almost 300,000 last year.
Today Mr Cameron will outline a series of new measures that he will claim will “control and reduce immigration”.
Speaking to Sky News Home Secretary Theresa May said there were a “significant” number of illegal immigrants in the country, although there have been no official estimates for the last five years.
Mrs May said: “No official figures have ever been put on illegal immigrants but obviously we are enhancing our ability through exit checks to identify those who have left the country and therefore identify overstayers. We are looking at significant numbers.”
She added: “We want to extend the (deportation rules) so that people who have no right to be here but are able to appeal have to leave the country first so they can be deported and then appeal from outside the country.”
Mrs May said the plans would close the loophole that means it is not an offence to work illegally in the UK and that they were improving the way overstayers were identified.
But critics call the plans a “distraction”, pointing out that most of the increase in immigration came from those arriving legally from within the EU.
The PM will unveil plans for:
:: a new offence of “illegal working” that would allow police to seize wages
:: new powers for councils to crackdown on landlords and evict illegal migrants
:: banks to check accounts against databases of people here illegally
:: satellite tracking tags for foreign criminals awaiting deportation
:: an extension of a policy to deport first, appeal later on immigration appeals
:: a new law ensuring businesses do not recruit abroad before advertising in Britain
:: and a labour market enforcement agency to crack down on exploitation
“A strong country isn’t one that pulls up the drawbridge … it is one that controls immigration,” Mr Cameron will say.
“Because if you have uncontrolled immigration, you have uncontrolled pressure on public services.
“And that is a basic issue of fairness.
“Uncontrolled immigration can damage our labour market and push down wages. It means too many people entering the UK legally but staying illegally.
“The British people want these things sorted.”
But Steve Ballinger, from the think tank British Future, told Sky News the measures would not bring down the numbers, and argued instead that tax receipts from immigrants should be used to support public services.
“People want an immigration system that works and is properly policed. But talking about tackling illegal immigration is a bit of a distraction.
“If you’ve promised to get the net migration system down most of those people are here legally so that isn’t going to have a huge impact.
“If he has got a plan to get net migration down, he should come out and say what it is.”
In particular, people question how the Government can limit EU migration.
The Conservative manifesto promises to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Europe before a 2017 referendum.
Mr Cameron has conceded that he cannot do anything about the freedom of workers to move across the continent.
But he does want to limit the access of EU migrants to British benefits for up to four years.
The Prime Minister will be able to start that lobbying tonight and Friday during conversations with EU counterparts on the fringes of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Latvia. Sky News
