Rogue firms hiring illegal migrants to be 'hit from all angles' in government crackdown on building sites and care homes

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Rogue companies employing illegal immigrants will be 'hit from all angles' by the government as part of a major crackdown this autumn, ministers claimed today.

The government will dramatically ramp up action against illegal workers in a drive to create a 'hostile environment' for company bosses abusing cheap labour from abroad, immigration minister James Brokenshire said.

The probe, which will involve hundreds of raids, will target construction sites, care homes and cleaning companies where the employment of illegal migrants is rife.

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Immigration minister James Brokenshire has revealed that the government plans to hit rogue firms which are employing illegal migrants across the UK with 'full force' in a major crackdown this autumn (file picture, posed)

Ministers will dramatically ramp up action against illegal workers in a drive to create a 'hostile environment'. Pictured: A group of migrants try to climb into the back of a lorry on the A16 in Calais, in a bid to get to the UK

Mr Brokenshire told The Times: 'Rogue employers who give jobs to illegal migrants are denying work to UK citizens and legal migrants and helping drive down wages.

'Experience tells us that employers who are prepared to cheat employment rules are also likely to breach health and safety rules and pay insufficient tax.

'That's why our new approach will be to use the full force of government machinery to hit them from all angles and take away the unfair advantage enjoyed by those who employ illegal migrants.'

Mr Brokenshire's remarks come ahead of the publication of a new Immigration Bill which will aim to tackle the scourge of exploited illegal immigrants given low wages to work in poor conditions.

The immigration minister warned that rogue landlords who fail to check whether they are renting out flats to illegal immigrants could face five years in jail.

The latest ministerial announcement on migration - which comes in the wake of the Calais migrant crisis - is designed to make it harder for anyone without the right to live in this country to rent a home.

It comes a day after ministers pledged a consultation on stripping financial support from the families of migrants who fail in their applications for asylum.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire revealed the plans to crackdown harder on rogue employers

Mr Brokenshire said the rules needed to be changed to show migrants that Britain was not the 'land of milk and honey'.

But the interventions merely added to fears that the government was responding to the crisis by making a slew of announcements to give the impression they are on top of the situation. Both policies were being worked on before the Calais crisis escalated last week.

David Cameron faced ridicule last week when he emerged from a Cobra meeting with officials to discuss the Calais crisis – but came out with nothing more than a promise to send more sniffer dogs and fencing panels to France.

Hauliers said the Prime Minister was doing no more than applying a 'sticking plaster' to the problem.

Today, Communities Secretary Greg Clark will pledge changes to legislation to bear down on the unscrupulous landlords who exploit the most vulnerable.

He will say landlords and agents will be required to conduct 'right to rent' checks on their tenants' immigration status before offering them a tenancy agreement.

A new criminal offence will be unveiled to those who repeatedly fail to conduct these 'right to rent' checks on their tenants' immigration status, or fail to take steps to remove illegal immigrants from their property.

These landlords may face a fine, up to five years imprisonment and further sanctions under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Forthcoming legislation will create a blacklist of persistent rogue landlords and letting agents, helping councils to focus their enforcement action on where it is most needed, and keeping track of those who have been convicted of housing offences.

And new measures will prevent a landlord or letting agent from renting out of properties if they are repeat offenders.

Mr Clark said: 'We are determined to crack down on rogue landlords who make money out of illegal immigration – exploiting vulnerable people and undermining our immigration system.

'In future, landlords will be required to ensure that the people they rent their properties to are legally entitled to be in the country.

'We will also require them to meet their basic responsibilities as landlords, cracking down on those who rent out dangerous, dirty and overcrowded properties.'

Migrants heading for Britain run along the railway line towards the Channel Tunnel in Calais, northern France

Migrants continue to camp in the 'New Jungle' in Calais, northern France, as the crisis continues in Europe

Yesterday ministers said they will consult on plans to strip failed asylum-seeker families of their right to benefits in an attempt to make Britain less attractive for migrants.

Under the existing system families are entitled to receive support after their asylum claims are turned down. About 10,000 parents and children receive £36.95 each a week on an 'Azure' card, which can be used to purchase essentials until they are sent home.

Under the changes, which will not be voted on by MPs until the autumn, the rules for asylum seekers with children will be brought into line with those for childless people, who have no automatic right to benefits if their asylum application fails.

Mr Brokenshire told BBC Radio 4's World This Weekend: 'We already have a system where, at the moment, if you don't have a legitimate humanitarian claim you would lose your entitlement to support.

'What we are looking at now is family groups which continue to maintain that automatically against a backdrop of people trying to present the UK as somehow the land of milk and honey and that somehow if you get here you automatically are entitled to welfare.

'We think it is right that if you don't have that claim – in essence you are here illegally – there should not be an automatic right to receive that benefit. 

'That is why we are consulting to check on how we can still provide assistance to those in need who cannot leave the UK but equally there isn't some automatic obtaining of welfare if you don't have the right to be here.'

His intervention came after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the huge influx of migrants coming from Africa was threatening to undermine social cohesion and living standards across Europe.

Mr Hammond said the continent could not absorb 'millions' of Africans and called for the overhaul of EU laws to ensure those coming simply to find a better way of life could be returned to their own countries.

He said in many cases, migrants knew that once they managed to reach Europe there was little chance of them ever being forced to leave.

His comments were condemned as 'mean-spirited' and 'shameful' by Amnesty International while Labour said the Foreign Secretary was guilty of 'scaremongering'.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the huge influx of migrants coming from Africa was threatening to undermine social cohesion and living standards across Europe, prompting him to call for an overhaul of EU law

Speaking during a visit to Singapore, Mr Hammond said the gap in living standards between the two continents meant there would always be an 'economic motivation' for Africans to try to make it to the EU.

'As long as the Europe Union's laws are the way they are, many of them will only have to set foot in Europe to be pretty confident that they will never be returned to their country of origin,' he told BBC News.

'Now, that is not a sustainable situation because Europe can't protect itself and preserve its standard of living and social structure, if it has to absorb millions of migrants from Africa.'

Mr Hammond said ensuring migrants could be returned to their country of origin was also the key to resolving the 'crisis' at Calais, where hundreds are gathered in the hope of being able to make it across the Channel to Britain.

'So long as there are large numbers of pretty desperate migrants marauding around the area there will always be a threat to the tunnel's security,' he said.