UK Home Office announces illegal immigration crackdown
Home Secretary for the United Kingdom, John Reid, revealed this week a renewed effort as part of on-going plans to arrest Britons involved in people-smuggling and to identify and assess fines against companies that hire illegal immigrants. Efforts to encourage and assist the public in reporting suspects and to provide other resources are also underway.
Increased Police Force
400 police constables and 40 sergeants are being assigned to specialized duty with the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in a push to tighten up control of illegal immigration activities. Coupled with an additional 360 newly hired immigration officers, it will boost the IND force to a total of 800 personnel currently dedicated to the task, overall an increase of 25%.
The Tories say that police were “badly needed” on the beat, while the Liberal Democrats want new police hired, not a redeployment of existing staff.
A Home Office spokeswoman insisted “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,” she said.
The shadow home secretary David Davis criticised the government’s record on the subject. “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.”
“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.”
Complete text linked below:
Source:
UK Home Office announces illegal immigration crackdown
WorkPermit.com
