DAME ANGELA EAGLE: Breakthrough on illegal work is latest step to get asylum system under control
Illegal working benefits no one, other than the ruthless criminals profiting from exploiting desperate people.
It undermines honest businesses, exploits vulnerable people and fuels organised immigration crime. We are taking strong and decisive action to close loopholes being exploited by illegal workers.
It is wrong for anyone to bypass our laws and systems and expect to get away with it, and it is our job to stop them. Last month I hosted a roundtable with Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat where they committed to new security measures to prevent accounts being shared with those who have no right to work in the UK.
Now we are going further still with this joined-up approach, by enhancing our data sharing with the three firms and improving our capabilities to track down those who flout our rules by working on these platforms.
This data matching between us and the platforms will spot where abuse is happening and put a stop to it. Delivery firms can take swifter action to remove accounts suspected of breaking immigration rules.
But this not a silver bullet. These changes are happening alongside wider action under our Plan for Change, including a 50% increase in enforcement activity by operational teams across the country, resulting in over 7,000 arrests, as well as the removal of 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK since government came into power.
And just this week we have sanctioned 25 individuals at the heart of people-smuggling networks, from a small boat supplier in Asia, to gang leaders based in the Balkans and North Africa.
We are also changing the law. Our Borders Bill will expand right to work checks to the gig economy, meaning more action can be taken against employers breaking the rules. It will also protect our borders with new counterterror-style powers which can disrupt illegality or prevent abuse happening in the first place.
And we must uphold an immigration system that is functional and fair. That's why anyone caught abusing the system by benefiting from support and accommodation under false pretences will face having that support discontinued.
It's what the public expect of us – and I know we will deliver.
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