Immigration crackdown will target landlords and taxi driversTOUGH new rules to tackle illegal immigration will come into force within weeks, the Government announced yesterday.
Regulations for landlords and taxi drivers will come first, followed by banks, as part of a drive to make it harder for people who have no right to be in Britain to gain a foothold here.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd also vowed to stop businesses hiring foreign workers when they could recruit or train Britons, and to stop immigrants using low-quality college courses as a bridge to jobs in the UK.
And she promised to make it easier to deport foreign criminals, including those who repeatedly commit “so-called minor crimes” in Britain, who could now be banned from returning here for between five and 10 years.
Communities that have suffered most pressure from recent mass immigration will, meanwhile, be helped with a new £140million fund to ease strains on public services and housing.
Ms Rudd used her keynote speech to the conference to recommit the Government to the goal of cutting net migration – the numbers of people arriving minus those leaving – to below 100,000 a year from its current 333,000.
Declining to put a timescale on the pledge, she warned: “This will not happen overnight.”
But she vowed: “This Government will not waver in its commitment to put the interests of the British people first.”
Low-migration campaigners welcomed her statement, but there was a backlash from business leaders.
Ms Rudd said she “absolutely accepted” the Brexit vote, although she campaigned to stay in the European Union, and she acknowledged that voters had sent a “clear message".
There can be no question that recent levels of immigration motivated a large part of the vote”.
Vowing to implement legislation introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, Ms Rudd announced that rules making it a criminal offence for landlords to rent property to people with no right to be here will take effect from December.
“They could go to prison,” she said.
Also from December, people wanting a licence to drive taxis must prove their migration status.
From next autumn, banks will have to do regular checks to ensure that they are not providing essential banking services to illegal migrants.
Measures Ms Rudd will consider to encourage companies to hire in Britain include making them reveal what proportion of their workforces are foreign – as happens in America – and what they have done to nurture a pool of local candidates.
Companies could also be banned from concealing salaries in job advertisements to enable them to offer migrants lower pay.
Ms Rudd will now consult businesses and universities on new steps to control foreign worker and student numbers.
Companies could find it harder to get permission to recruit from outside the EU, to ensure that foreigners are genuinely filling gaps in the labour market and not taking jobs British people could do.
The current system, including requiring posts to be advertised here first for a month, was too often a “tick-box exercise, allowing some firms to get away with not training local people. I want us to look again at whether our immigration system provides the right incentives for businesses to invest in British workers”, she said.
The Government will also consider whether to tie immigration rights for foreign students to the quality of course and college.
The aim is to ensure that people do not come to British universities only to gain the rights that they then obtain to stay and work here, and the rights their family members have to work while they are studying.
Even those studying English degrees do not need good spoken English, noted Ms Rudd. “This isn’t about pulling up the drawbridge.
It’s about making sure students that come here, come to study,” she said.
Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, said of Ms Rudd’s speech: “The referendum underlined public concern about immigration, so it is only right the Government addresses all aspects of the problem.”
But CBI deputy director-general Josh Hardie said: “Businesses will not welcome further restrictions on high-skilled migration from key trading partners around the world.
“At a time when we need strong links globally to seize new opportunities after the referendum, being seen as open to the best and brightest is vital.”
source:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/717671 ... xi-drivers
Login
Register
FAQ
