Immigration Bill ‘to tackle illegal working and exploitation’

Nick Elvin

The Prime Minister has outlined measures aimed at tackling illegal working, exploitation of overseas workers and the demand for foreign labour.

At a speech at the Home Office last week, David Cameron said the Government would take steps such as making making illegal working a criminal offence in its own right.

This would mean wages paid to illegal migrants would be seized as proceeds of crime and more businesses would be told when their workers’ visas expire.

Mr Cameron said the measures, which form part of the Immigration Bill included in this week’s Queen’s Speech, would reform the UK’s immigration and labour market rules, reducing the demand for skilled workers and cracking down on those who exploit low-skilled workers.

“For too long we’ve had a shortage of workers in certain roles,” he said. “Engineers, nurses, teachers, chefs – we haven’t had enough Brits trained in these areas and companies have had to fill the gaps with people from overseas.

“We’re going to get far better at training our own people. This involves creating three million more apprenticeships – and we will consult on getting the businesses that use foreign labour to help fund them through a new visa levy.”

The PM said the Government would ask the Migration Advisory Committee to advise on significantly reducing the level of economic migration from outside the EU.

“We should be getting to a place where we only bring in workers from outside Europe where we have genuine skills shortages or require highly-specialist experts. Some professions are on the Shortage Occupation List year after year and nothing is being done about it. That’s not good enough. So we will seek to limit the length of time professions can be classed as having shortages.

“Sectors that have become over-reliant on migrant workers will be encouraged to train Brits instead. What’s more, we’ll make it illegal for employment agencies to recruit solely from abroad without advertising those jobs in Britain and in English.”

Mr Cameron said there would be tougher measures to deal with businesses who exploit cheap labour from overseas, including creating a new enforcement agency that cracks down on the worst cases of exploitation.

“Responsibilities for this are currently split between four different departments,” he said. “They will be brought into one body – so businesses can’t bring in cheap labour that undercuts the wages of local people.”

Responding to the Government’s measures to tackle illegal working, CBI deputy director-general, Katja Hall said: “Business supports tough, targeted action against criminals who exploit workers.

“There is an enormous difference between this type of serious crime and typical employment law disputes, which have well established routes to resolution. That distinction must be maintained.

“The new agency should focus on illegal working and not blur the lines between employment law enforcement and a crack-down on criminal activity.”

Regarding the proposals on skilled migration, she said: “The net migration target should be scrapped. While increasing the UK’s skills base is vital for improving productivity and growth, introducing a levy on working visas is the wrong approach, as the cost of visas is already high and this measure risks sending out a message that Britain isn’t open for business.

“In the short term failing to increase the skilled migration cap will make it more difficult for businesses to access to skills they need to succeed.”