Press Association
Monday November 20, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
More than 350 new immigration officers are to be recruited to crack down on illegal immigrants, the home secretary, John Reid, said today. In addition, 440 police officers will also be taken out of police forces and redirected to tackling immigration issues. Plans to increase the number of people working on immigration enforcement was announced by Mr Reid as part of his action plan to reform the Home Office, published in the summer.
But it was the first time it had been revealed that many of the new enforcement teams would actually be police officers on secondment from their normal jobs. Mr Reid said: "These measures are the next step in a comprehensive strategy building on the commitment that I made in July to transform the Immigration Nationality Directorate and boost its enforcement capability to ensure we tackle illegal immigration and provide a fair and effective immigration system fit for the 21st century." A Home Office spokeswoman said the 800 new immigration enforcement staff would be rolled out from the beginning of next year, and would include 400 police constables and 40 sergeants. She said: "We are very clear that we do not want this to have an impact on police officers' frontline work. "There won't be any police officers taken off the front line." The teams will also work more closely with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which already spends about a quarter of its time tackling immigration crime. Huge fines for employers who use illegal immigrants will be introduced next year instead of 2008, the spokeswoman said. They could be hit with £5,000 for each illegal immigrant they employ. Members of the public will for the first time be able to report illegal workers and illegal immigrants using the Crimestoppers freephone number from January 1. The spokeswoman said ministers want to create 650 extra detention spaces for illegal immigrants by the end of 2007, possibly using prison barges which the Home Office is currently looking into buying. Mr Reid has pledged to double the number of people working in enforcement teams. Today's expansion of 800 officers amounts to a 25% rise. The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said: "People trafficking and all its associated evils is one of the fastest growing and most vicious crimes, yet the government's policy so far has been one of neglect. "For over a decade at least there have been laws in place to prosecute the employment of illegal workers yet, up until the tragedy at Morecambe Bay, there were just a handful of prosecutions. "What we have today is a crude attempt at spin by the home secretary, which will not result in 800 new immigration officers but will result in hundreds of badly needed police officers being taken of the beat and seconded to the IND to deal with Labour's crisis there. "Over the last nine years we have actually seen immigration officers instructed not to arrest illegal immigrants, merely to meet the prime minister's artificial targets on removing failed asylum seekers." |
