Is it Time We Accepted This Government Cannot Stop the Boats?

With the news that the Government is set to impose ruinous fines on employers and landlords who inadvertently take on an illegal immigrant, Ross Clark in the Telegraph says it’s time to accept that this Government simply cannot stop the boats. Here’s an excerpt.

Sure, employing people whom you know are in the country illegally is an offence and those committing it deserve to be penalised, but a £45,000 fine for employing a worker who fibbed about their migration status, or a £10,000 fine for a landlord who failed to spot that a student to whom they let a property has since overstayed their visa seems high. True, there are businesses which deliberately break the rules, but it is also rather easy to get caught out. How many people have ever employed a cleaner without formally checking their migration status?

That Jenrick is lashing out at businesses and landlords is a symptom of impotence: the Government has failed miserably to tackle illegal migration and is trying to pass the buck. You would think, however, that ministers might be a little more sympathetic to businesses who fall foul of the rules given that the very Home Office building in which Jenrick and his staff sit was once caught out for employing illegal migrants. In 2006, five Nigerian cleaners were arrested while working there. …

If we are going to impose eye watering fines on businesses and landlords at a time when the economy is stuttering, perhaps the Government should also explore possible consequences for its own failures. It was reported today that ministers are contemplating housing migrants on Ascension Island if the Rwanda plan fails, an idea which has already been floated once before and now awaits Supreme Court judgment. It looks even less likely to get off the ground than a flight to Kigali. Perhaps ministers know this; after all, why bother pushing through unpopular measures that might deter the illegal trafficking trade when the state can just clobber entrepreneurs and landlords?

Perhaps it’s time we realised that, despite many creative plans, photo ops at Dover and tough rhetoric, this Government simply cannot stop the boats.

Worth reading in full.