My message to anyone working illegally in the UK is clear - don't bother

 It undercuts honest businesses, wrecks the look and feel of our high streets and damages our economy. But most importantly, it undermines our immigration system.

For too long, vile people smuggling gangs have peddled lies to migrants about their ability to live and work in the UK, in a bid to sell spaces on deadly small boat crossings.

But I have seen for myself the reality of this. In most cases, migrants are living in squalid conditions, working for little to no pay, and face the imminent threat of arrest and deportation. 

On a recent enforcement raid I attended with LBC, we met a man who had come to the UK under a Health and Care Worker Visa, yet he was working cash in hand at a car wash in Crawley. This is flagrant abuse of the system, and he was arrested on the spot.

This is a clear example of our zero-tolerance approach to illegal working in all its forms.

Under our watch, Immigration Enforcement action has reached record levels with over 8,000 arrests and 11,000 enforcement visits in the past year alone.  That's the highest it's ever been in British history.

We are flooding every sector. Dodgy nail bars, construction sites car washes, takeaways, delivery riders. You name it, we're taking action.

To give LBC readers and listeners an example, during Operation Equalize – intensified action targeting illegal delivery riders – 171 arrests were made in the space of just seven days. 60 of those individuals now face removal from the UK.

And as well as going after the workers, we’re also targeting the kingpins at the top of these organised immigration crime networks. Just last week three men were arrested in Olton and West Bromwich suspected of facilitating illegal working at mini marts right across the UK.

This rapid, targeted action from our enforcement teams sends a message that Britian is not a soft touch.  

But it's not just operational activity we're ramping up; we're also closing loopholes in outdated laws to make sure we have the toughest possible approach.

Our Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, which received Royal Assent this week, will give us even greater powers to tackle illegal working.

It will ensure there is no hiding place for illegal workers and businesses to flout the rules in the gig economy, with rogue bosses facing up to five years of jail time and unlimited fines for hiring these individuals.

And in response to the impact illegal working has on our hometowns, we’re protecting honest, hardworking people but giving communities new powers to block unwanted shops and have a greater say on what’s in their high streets. Because we want to root out this criminality from our towns and cities for good.

This relentless work all forms part of the sweeping reforms Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is spearheading - to make it less attractive for illegal migrants to come to the UK, and easier to deport and remove those with no right to be here.

These are practical solutions to ensure we have a firm but fair system which upholds our British values.

So, my message to anyone working illegally is clear - don't bother. You will be arrested, detained and removed from the UK.

________________

Mike Tapp is Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship and a Labour MP for Dover and Deal.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk