Ministers pledge to end 'jobs on tap' for illegal migrants with 'jail threats and unlimited fines' for rogue bosses

30 March 2025, 07:33

The Home Secretary has pledged to end "jobs on tap" for illegal migrants by clamping down on border law loopholes, as Britain prepares to host the first international summit on tackling people smugglers.

Yvette Cooper said she would "restore order to the asylum system" with a new initiative to tackle companies that hire on the black market.

The Home Secretary said that employers who take on workers without the right visa could face unlimited fines and five years in prison.

"We are restoring order to the asylum system," Ms Cooper told the Telegraph.

"This means introducing tough laws and stopping rogue employers in their tracks.

"We will clamp down on the jobs on tap that undercut the labour market.”

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It comes ahead of the first international conference on ending people-smuggling, to be held in London on Monday and Tuesday,.

Ministers and enforcement staff from 40 countries will meet in the capital next week to discuss international co-operation, supply routes, criminal finances and online adverts for dangerous journeys.

The summit will focus on small boat journeys across the English Channel, which are framed as part of a wider problem of organised immigration crime driving movements to make profit.

More than 8,000 adverts on social media were taken down last year where smugglers were promoting crossings, before moving to encrypted channels.

Some 600 engines were seized and hundreds of people arrested for facilitating journeys in efforts to crack down on smuggling gangs.

Law enforcement agencies trying to break smugglers' business models are believed to have forced up the cost for engines and boats to £14,000 from the low thousands in a bid to make it economically unsustainable to carry on.

Criminal finances will be a focus of discussions, which will look at how to follow the money of smugglers globally and to share approaches from different countries.

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Hundreds of millions are believed to be transferred illicitly through the Hawala system, for example, which is a legitimate means of transferring money around the world, but is also used in payments linked to Channel crossings.

Countries including Albania, Vietnam and Iraq - where migrants have travelled from to the UK - will join the talks as well as France, the US and China.

A record number of people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year.

The Government is also expanding right to work checks to cover casual, temporary workers in amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

The legislation is continuing through Parliament with plans to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.

The addition announced on Sunday will widen the right to work scheme for gig economy workers not currently covered in existing laws.

Liable businesses could be fined up to £60,000, or face closures, director disqualifications, and even up to five years in prison, if checks are not carried out.

Ms Cooper said: "Turning a blind eye to illegal working plays into the hands of callous people smugglers trying to sell spaces on flimsy, overcrowded boats with the promise of work and a life in the UK.

"These exploitative practices are often an attempt to undercut competitors who are doing the right thing.

"But we are clear that the rules need to be respected and enforced.

"These new laws build on significant efforts to stop organised immigration crime and protect the integrity of our borders, including increasing raids and arrests for illegal working and getting returns of people who have no right to be here to their highest rate in half a decade."