Crackdown on 'illegal' employers

2:43pm Saturday 29th December 2007

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THE Home Office has launched a new advertising campaign to crack down on businesses who employ illegal workers.

Those businesses that are found to breaking the rules and employing illegal workers negligently will face large fines of up to £10,000 per worker, or else up to two years in prison.

This stark message will be driven home in a new three week radio and newspaper advertising campaign, beginning on Monday, January 14, and aimed at building awareness of the new rules that come into effect in February.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne said: "Working illegally attracts illegal migrants and undercuts British wages, and that's why we're determined to shut it down. The message is clear to employers - we will not tolerate illegal working, and this high visibility campaign will ensure employers have no excuse for breaking the rules."

A raid by government inspectors at Simms & Wood recently, a vegetable packing firm in Wyre Piddle, resulted in three gangmasters having their licenses revoked after it was found a single passport had been copied to supply phoney identification for four people.

An unroadworthy minibus was also being used to transport these illegal workers, and inspectors discovered a breach of other health and safety regulations.

This crackdown on illegal working is part of the biggest shake-up of the immigration system for 40 years, and 2008 will also see a points system introduced for managing immigration, the start of the new e-borders programme which counts people coming into the country and biometric ID cards for any foreign national in the UK for more than three months.