Local immigration teams to be
introduced across the UK
19 June 2008
New local immigration teams are being
introduced across the UK, alongside Local Crime Partnerships with
police, as part of a major refocus of the work of the UK Border Agency (UKBA),
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced today.
Around 7,500 UKBA officers and staff up
and down the UK will be reorganised into 70-80 Local Immigration Teams
and given a clear mission to focus on local immigration crime.
The Government's plans, set out in
'Enforcing the Deal' published today, set a clear focus for the UKBA's
work in Britain to target the removal from the UK of the most harmful
people first. This will be achieved through a raft of measures
including; automatic deportation for serious offenders, over 1,000 extra
immigration staff focused on enforcement duties, action against
employers who break the law and new partnerships with local authorities
and enforcement agencies to shut down the privileges of the UK to those
breaking the rules.
Launching the new strategy, Home
Secretary Jacqui Smith said:
"When newcomers come here they enter
into a deal with the UK - to work hard, play by the rules and earn
their right to stay.
"To ensure that deal is delivered we
have already increased resources by putting 1,000 additional
immigration staff on enforcement duties and are on-track to double our
enforcement resources by 2009/10, and deliver Immigration Crime
Partnerships in every part of the UK.
"Central to this plan will also be
the creation of Local Immigration Teams, bringing our staff closer to
the communities we serve. They will have the local knowledge to tackle
a community's specific needs - tracking down illegal migrants,
targeting those companies that flout the rules, or gathering
intelligence by working with a range of local agencies.
"The UK's immigration system is
undergoing the biggest shake-up for a generation, and these changes
will ensure our frontline officers can continue to implement these
reforms, and meet the tough targets we have set the UK Border Agency."
Each local team will enforce the full
range of immigration laws, concentrating on intelligence gathering, the
disruption of illegal activity, tracking down and detaining immigration
offenders and failed asylum seekers, and tackling illegal working. The
new teams will work shoulder-to-shoulder with police, Her Majesty's
Revenue and Customs, and local partner agencies, in a new series of
partnerships announced today. Staff in Birmingham, Croydon, Glasgow,
Liverpool and Sheffield will also fingerprint foreign nationals applying
for their ID cards from November this year.
Also announced today was the UKBA's
partnership with the fraud prevention body CIFAS, which is subject to
Parliamentary approval this summer. This will see names and addresses of
foreign nationals of interest to the agency - those who have been
removed from the UK and who have been convicted of immigration offences
- shared through the CIFAS database with over 270 financial service,
telecoms and utility companies, to assist them in tackling fraud.
Employers will also be able to speak to
UKBA local teams for advice on employing migrant labour and preventing
the hiring of illegal workers. Companies that continue to break the
rules and hire those without the right to work now face huge fines of up
to £10,000 per illegal worker.
Today's plans set out a clear set of
priorities for the new Local Immigration Teams to enforce the deal that
newcomers will play by the rules, or face the consequences. Priorities
include:
-
the removal of those with no right
to be here, or who pose a threat, targeting the most harmful - more
than 5,000 foreign national prisoners will be removed by the end of
2008;
-
holding those individuals,
businesses, colleges, organisations and facilitators who break UK laws
to account - 5,000 operations to identify and penalise organisations
will be carried out in 2008/9;
-
to have in place Immigration Crime
Partnerships across the UK by March 2009;
-
to deliver a Border Intelligence
Service by October 2008; and
-
fingerprinting foreign nationals for
ID cards starting from November 2008 to help deny the privileges of
the UK to those who break the rules.
Today's announcement was also welcomed
by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
Chief Constable of North Yorkshire
Police and ACPO lead for immigration Grahame Maxwell said:
"The report published today is a positive step forward. Tackling
immigration crime requires close working between police forces, the UK
Border Agency and other local partners. The arrangements set out today
should strengthen that approach. We welcome particularly the
commitment to respond to every police request when dealing with
immigration offenders.
"The police will continue to work closely with the UK Border Agency to
achieve our ambition in combating organised immigration crime and to
create a hostile environment for those who commit these offences."
Welcoming UKBA's proposed partnership
with CIFAS Peter Hurst, CIFAS Chief Executive, said:
"We are delighted at the prospect of
welcoming UKBA into CIFAS membership. With fraud growing rapidly in
both the public and the private sectors, and the pressure this creates
for the resourcing of public services, UKBA's decision represents a
positive step forward in the fight to stop illegal entrants to the UK
diverting resources from those with the legal right to be here and
legitimate needs."
Today's plan also announced
partnerships with local authorities to help combat abuse of local
authority services by illegal immigrants.
Councillor Mike Rye Leader of Enfield
Council, one of UKBA's partnership authorities, said:
"Having a UKBA officer in situ in our
offices will be an immense help in all areas of our work - I am really
pleased that Enfield Council has been chosen to pilot this new way of
working. This partnership will be a great asset in helping us combat
fraud, speeding up checks on the immigration status of people applying
for council services, and improving the exchange of information
between the Council and the UK Border Agency for child protection
purposes."
Reforms set out in 'Enforcing the Deal'
include:
-
from today, the UK Border Agency is
naming and shaming employers who hire illegal immigrants;
-
from this summer the most serious
business offenders will be targeted jointly by UKBA and Her Majesty's
Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in a new intelligence sharing and joint
targeting partnership which will come into force from July;
-
employers and colleges applying for
carefully policed licences to hire migrants;
-
there will be a joint investment and
business plan between UKBA and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA);
-
automatic deportation will be
introduced for those sentenced to 12 months in prison or more, and
deportation will be imposed for those who use guns or sell drugs
regardless of their sentence;
-
watch-lists of immigration offenders
will be shared with DWP, HMRC and private sector fraud prevention
agency CIFAS;
-
by January 2009, UKBA will have
increased the number of foreign national prisoners removed to over
5,000 during 2008;
-
Local Immigration Teams will be up
and running in each region;
-
a UKBA Criminal Investigation
Division will be in place;
-
90 per cent of constabularies in
England and Wales will have Immigration Crime Partnerships in place;
and
-
five local authority partnerships
will have been deployed and evaluated.
Together these measures show how the
UKBA plans to detect, detain and deport those with no right to be in the
UK and to provide support to businesses and communities to ensure the
country gets the migrants who will benefit UK socially and economically.
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