SIR Keir Starmer has said illegal immigration “makes me angry” – as he compared vile people-smuggling gangs to terrorists.
The PM hit out at ruthless traffickers exploiting desperate migrants and warned illegal crossings are fuelling global chaos.
PAPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the Organised Immigration Crime Summit at Lancaster House in central London[/caption]
AFPHome Secretary Yvette Cooper[/caption]
Opening the UK’s first ever Organised Immigration Crime Summit in London, he fumed: “Illegal migration is a massive driver of global insecurity.”
Sir Keir added: “It undermines our ability to control who comes here and that makes people angry. It makes me angry, frankly.
“Because it is unfair on ordinary working people who pay the price, from the cost of hotels, to our public services struggling under the strain.
“And it is unfair on the illegal migrants themselves because these are vulnerable people being ruthlessly exploited by vile gangs.”
He also admitted that for “too long” the UK had been a “soft touch” on illegal working.
The PM said there is “little that strikes working people as more unfair than watching illegal migration drive down their wages, their terms and their conditions through illegal work in their community.”
Taking aim at the Tories, he blasted: “Whilst the last Government were busy with their Rwanda gimmick, they left the door wide open for illegal working, especially in short term or zero hours, roles like construction, beauty salons and courier services.
“Whilst, of course, most companies do the responsible thing and carry out Right to Work checks, too many dodgy firms have been exploiting a loophole to skip this process, hiring illegal workers, undercutting honest businesses, driving down the wages of ordinary working people.
“And all of this, of course, fuelling that poisonous narrative of the gangs who promised a dream of a better life to vulnerable people, yet deliver a nightmare of squalid conditions and appalling exploitation.”
He vowed a new crackdown on rogue employers – with a tough law to force firms to carry out Right to Work checks.
Sir Keir went on: “Failure to comply will result in fines of up to £60,000, prison terms of up to five years, and the potential closure of their businesses.”
Leaders and ministers from 40 countries – including France, the US and China – gathered for the two-day summit.
Officials from Albania, Vietnam and Iraq, from where many migrants have reached Britain, are also in attendance.
Ministers marked the opening of the summit with a range of new policy measures, including £30m to tackle global trafficking routes and the flows of illicit money which fund them.
A further £3m will go to the Crown Prosecution Service to help it expand its international work.
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