Britain has ‘no way’ of tracking down hundreds of thousands working here on the black market, staff chief claims
Lucy Moreton, head of the Border Force trade union, said drastic cuts to the immigration enforcement workforce meant the UK was now a soft touch for illegal migrants
BRITAIN has “no way” of ever tracking down the hundreds of thousands illegal immigrants working on the black market, a border chief has warned.
Lucy Moreton head of the Border Force trade union said drastic cuts to the immigration enforcement workforce meant the UK was now a soft touch for illegal migrants.
And she warned it would be nigh on impossible to police new rules on EU nationals that will be imposed by the Government’s post-Brexit immigration strategy.
The blistering attack came just days after alarming photos showed scores of Albanians bragging about stealing their way into the country.
Ms Moreton told the Sun: “If you are here illegally you can survive very well, you access medical services your child can go to school the chances of us catching you are very, very slim.
“If you don’t break the law we are not going to get you as we don’t have the resources. We can’t catch you.”
Last month David Wood, an ex-director general of immigration enforcement told MPs he believed there were over a million illegal immigrants in Britain.
He said there were huge numbers living “under the radar” and many will never be sent home.
Ms Moreton – who is due to be grilled by MPs on Wednesday – said the Government had effectively outsourced immigration enforcement to private companies, landlords, teachers and GPs.
Dozens of landlords were fined earlier this year for failing to check whether tenants had a right to be in the country.
The immigration enforcement workforce is separate to the Border Force that patrol the UK’s customs at airports and ferry terminals.
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Ministers are in the process of hiring an additional 300 Border Force staff to be ready for Brexit. But critics claim as many as 3,000 more are needed for the workforce to be ready for March 2019.
Ms Moreton warned: “If we get a Hard Brexit, the wheels will come off. Only 0.4 per cent of the traffic that comes into Dover is from outside the EU.
“It will take up to 40 minutes to check every lorry. Ferries will be queuing up in the sea.”
A Home Office spokesperson said Border Force and Immigration Enforcement should be "judged on their results, not staff numbers".
He said some 6,300 foreign national offenders, the highest number ever, last year.
The spokesman added: “The UK already has some of the most secure borders in the world, with our expert officers using some of the most advanced border security technology in the world; whilst it is harder than ever before for those with no right to be here to remain in the UK.”