Home Office U-turn as it agrees to share location of asylum seeker hotels with Deliveroo and Just Eat to crack down on illegal workers
Deliveroo said last week it had asked civil servants for the hotel addresses so it could block accounts operating from these locations, only to be refused due to 'safety concerns' for hotel occupants.
But the Home Office has now changed its stance and will share this information with Deliveroo, as well as its competitors Just Eat and Uber Eats.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said tonight: 'Illegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime.
'By enhancing our data sharing with delivery companies, we are taking decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement.
'The changes come alongside a 50% increase in raids and arrests for illegal working under the Plan for Change, greater security measures and tough new legislation.'
Last month it emerged that migrants living in taxpayer-funded asylum hotels – including those who arrived by small boat – are securing work as fast food delivery riders within hours of entering Britain.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said he had found evidence of asylum seekers breaking rules which bar them from working while their claim is processed by the Home Office.
The Tory politician visited an asylum hotel in central London and posted a video showing bicycles fitted with delivery boxes for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats parked outside.
Days later, the Home Office said it had called in all three companies for a dressing down – and the meeting led to pledges to introduce 'facial recognition' systems on rider apps, such as those used by banks to confirm someone's identity.
However, Deliveroo was refused access to hotel location data despite assurances it would be treated confidentially, the Times reported.
Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said at the time: 'The fact that the Home Office is refusing to help them just shows how topsy-turvy this country's approach to migration has become.
'Crossing the Channel illegally is a crime. Working here illegally is a crime.
'Too many people are brazenly breaking the rules and it's a disgrace that the Home Office is aiding and abetting them.'
Eddy Montgomery, Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime at the Home Office, said following tonight's u-turn: 'This next step of co-ordinated working with delivery firms will help us target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK.
'My teams will continue to carry out increased enforcement activity across the UK and I welcome this additional tool to disrupt and stop the abuse of our immigration system.'
The Government has also announced the trialling of AI-powered facial recognition technology to determine whether Channel migrants are being wrongly identified as children.
The Home Office announced testing on new technology will begin later this year with the hope it could be fully integrated into the asylum system in 2026.
Ministers admitted that assessing the age of asylum seekers is 'an incredibly complex and difficult task' but said AI might soon provide quick and cost-effective results.
More than 23,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up more than 50 per cent on the same point last year and the highest number in the first six months since figures began in 2018.
The Home Office says there are 32,345 asylum seekers being put up at taxpayer expense in hotels, with another 66,683 in houses and flats.
These have regularly been the target of protests, some of which have turned violent.
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Lucy Partington A 21-year-old medieval English student at Exeter University, she returned home for Christmas in December 1973. She left a friend's house in a rush to get the last bus from Cheltenham to Gretton on 27 December, and was abducted. She was found more twenty years later, her dismembered body in the cellar of Cromwell Street. Therese Siegenthaler A 21-year-old Swiss sociology student at Woolwich Polytechnic. She had planned to hitch-hike to Ireland in Easter 1974. Her family reported her missing having not heard from her for some time. Prosecution believe she was abducted before being killed, with Fred West later building a fake chimney over her grave. Shirley Hubbard Just 15 at the time of her death, Hubbard is believed to have been abducted by the Wests. Her body was found following an excavation in the concrete and plastic membrane of the cellar floor. Juanita Mott In the summer of 1974, Mott, 19, moved into 25 Cromwell Street but later went missing when she was living in Newent. Her body was found in March 1994, 19 years later, with West having concreted over the floor of the cellar. Shirley Robinson The first victim buried outside the house, Robinson had an affair with Fred West, and by autumn 1977, she was pregnant with his child. It was initially claimed the 18-year-old had moved to Scotland but her body was later found. When questioned, Rosemary West, herself pregnant with her daughter Tara at the time of the murder, claimed she did not remember her, which was described as 'ludicrous' by the prosecution. Alison Chambers The last murder with a sexual motive established. She disappeared just before her 17 th birthday, having been seen at 25 Cromwell Street throughout the summer. Her body was buried underneath the patio. Heather West The first child born to Fred and Rosemary West, there is no evidence the 16-year-old was aware of the killings. Sexually abused by her parents and having told friends, she suddenly went missing in 1987, with Rosemary claiming she had gone to Wales to be with a lesbian partner. The couple would joke to their other children that they would 'end up under the patio like Heather' if they misbehaved. This - and Fred's abuse of his other daughter - led to the search warrants for the property, and subsequently to their arrests. Barry and his brothers were forced to grow their hair long and wore their sisters' hand-me-downs to school - while their sisters were made to cut their hair short and wear boys' shoes. He said he and all his siblings had speech impediments growing up, a sign of child abuse. Barry would get his "face punched in" at school every day, but was scared to go home. He recalled how Fred would constantly talk about sex in front of his kids and about wanting to take his daughters' virginity, as well as the family tradition of incest, and sex with animals. 9 9 9 Fred's main ambition was to see Rose mounted by a bull. Barry said he was forced into sexual situations with his mum aged eight or nine. The kids were often forced to make phone bookings for "Mandy" - Rose's prostitute alias, and Barry was even offered as an extra for clients. A "giant man" became a regular who would rape Barry at the house. He said the children were even made to watch homemade porn featuring their mum and she kept different underwear in labelled jars for each client. There is a chance, according to some reports, that Fred was not Barry's biological father at all, and he was the product of an incestuous relationship between Rose and her own dad Bill Letts. He had allegedly abused her since she was a child, and regularly visited the Cromwell Street house, according to Rose's notes from prison. The Wests' murder victims were usually attacked and killed, then often dismembered in the family bathroom. Most of their children maintained they had no idea what was going on. How horror unfolded JANUARY 1968: Mary vanishes aged 15 while waiting for a bus to meet her boyfriend. FEBRUARY 1968: Scotland Yard detectives called in to investigate Mary's disappearance return to London with no sign of her. FEBRUARY 1994: Police search garden at Fred and Rose West's home, 25 Cromwell St, Gloucester, over their teenage daughter Heather's disappearance. Nine bodies are found and Fred West is charged with murder. Police are then informed of a potential link to Mary's disappearance and the café. APRIL 1994: Rose West is charged with murder. JANUARY 1995: Fred West kills himself in jail while awaiting trial for 12 murders. NOVEMBER 1995: Rose convicted of ten murders, including Fred's step-daughter from previous marriage Charmaine, pictured, who vanished aged eight. JANUARY 2012: Police reject a petition by Mary's friends to search café. MAY 2021: TV documentary makers find new evidence of Mary's remains at café. Police begin a dig at the scene. One child, who Sounes does not identify, however, claimed years later they were locked in a cupboard under the stairs and could hear shouting and screaming. When they came out, fresh concrete had been poured in the cellar, they claimed. Barry said the children didn't run away because they considered their dad "like God" who would "find you". His older sister Heather vanished aged 16 in 1987 after saying she wanted to leave the house - before later being found dismembered under the patio. It was a long-running family "joke" that Heather was buried in the garden which became a sick reality when police diggers later moved in. However, Barry recalled how he once tried to kill Fred with a screwdriver when he was 11, but his dad just laughed at him. But they did get some revenge on Rose by banding together as she came at them with the wooden spoon. It was when the police investigation had begun into the Wests had begun and just before the children were put into care. They piled on top of their mum and she hit them until she was "knackered" and then "broke down", with Barry saying it was the first time they "saw weakness". 9 9 9
