Illegal Immigrants

[bob561941]

The government is proposing to make all residential landlords responsible for checking tenants for immigrant status,the Landlord could be fined if this is not carried out no mention of any training for the landlords who appear to be taking over the role of the Border Agency. What is the situation at the moment if a private uk citizen suspects an illegal immigrant is living in his/her neighbourhood who do they report to ??

[2sp_]

I'm not sure how you know if someone is illegally here other than checking their paperwork against national government databases - a course of action few of us could take.

But, I suppose if you wanted to report suspicions you should start with the Border Agency?

[New Judge]

This seems a good deal for the Exchequer to me.

Border Agency (because of ineptitude) allows many illegal immigrants to enter and remain here. Landlords (who have no way of properly checking their status) get fined for renting them a house.

As with fining haulage firms and lorry drivers whose vehicles are used by stowaways, yet another method to get cash from "easy meat".

[factor-fiction]

There is already a requirement for employers to check the person is entitled to work here. I assume the DWP also checks if any claims are made and doctors may already have to check too.

So this proposal is just another check to catch some of those who currently slip through the net. But I think it's more difficult for landlords than it is for employers- so training or guidance will have to be given.

[New Judge]

Doctors have been told that they must register allcomers regardless of their status, factor, but that's by the way.

Moving on, why should, say, a person running a simple single-property buy-to-let enterprise have to do the job that the State authorities are singularly unable to do? And if it was simply to help the authorities catch those that "slipped through the net" (a net with the biggest mesh imaginable) why the threat of draconian fines? Why not a reward for detecting an illegal who the Border Agency has failed to intercept? Employers are fined £10k per rogue employee, hauliers £2k per stowaway. What will be the penalty for letting a property to somebody whose entitlement to be here is invalid?

The penalty for the illegal immigrant? Free healthcare, free accommodation, free board and lodging, free legal representation to appeal their deportation. The Border Agency is supposed to protect our borders, detecting and removing those not entitled to be here. Meanwhile, employers employ people, hauliers haul stuff and landlords rent property. That's the way it should be. This shift of responsibilities from enforcement agencies to law-abiding people and businesses - making criminals of them into the bargain - is insidious and needs to be stopped, not expanded.

[jim360]

Well it's al part and parcel of the Conservative's usual attempt to rein in the State. This time the have found the seriously clever idea of handing over all the things they're meant to be doing to Charities, doctors, landlords etc., so that now we can blame them instead of the Government. Great thinking, Dave...