Illegal worker crackdown staffed by officers 'twiddling thumbs' on Rwanda plan, government says
There has been a significant rise in arrests of illegal workers in Yorkshire and the North East since the general election, the Home Office has said, with ministers claiming this was made possible by moving staff away from the Tories’ Rwanda plan.
Since July 5 last year, officers have carried out 687 visits on suspected premises resulting in 557 arrests.
The Government said this was a 14 per cent and 56 per cent rise respectively compared to the same period previously.
In particular, officers were focusing on restaurants, nail bars and construction sites that were facilitating illegal working.
The Government said this was “often subjecting migrants to squalid conditions and illegal working hours below minimum wage”.
These could be people who came over on small boats, or those who have overstayed their visa or were trafficked for illegal work.
Across the whole of the country there has been a 48 per cent increase in illegal workplace visits and a 51 per cent rise in arrests, according to the Home Office.
Border Security and Asylum Minister Dame Angela Eagle told The Yorkshire Post that this was possible by moving staff who had from the previous government’s plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda for processing and resettlement.
One of the Labour Government’s first actions last July was to cancel the scheme, which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said had cost £700m.
The policy, which had got mired in the courts, only moved four migrants to Rwanda, who had volunteered to go.
Dame Angela said the success had come from “diverting some of the people that were employed in immigration enforcement, ahead of the Rwanda scheme, to more productive work.
“We shifted a lot of people into this kind of area so we could do more enforcement.”
A Home Office source told this paper that hundreds of officers, who had been “twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Rwanda scheme”, were moved over into frontline roles.
The Government highlighted one operation on March 11 at a pick up point in Bradford that led to nine arrests
In a joint operation with West Yorkshire Police, officers visited the junction of Naples Street and Whetley Lane acting on intelligence that illegal workers were being collected daily by vans transporting them to work.
Officers intercepted the group waiting at the hotspot to be collected for work in the morning and arrested nine men, including six Afghans, one Nigerian, one Bangladeshi and one Ethiopian.
Dame Angela added: “Illegal working undermines our border security, damages our economy and often leads to the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.
“This activity will no longer be tolerated on our watch and these figures demonstrate this government’s determination to disrupt organised immigration criminals at every level.”
The Government has also come to an agreement with food delivery companies, such as Deliveroo, to stop the practice of drivers sharing licences.
And as well as visits in cities, officers were also keeping an eye on illegal working conditions in rural areas.