Sunday, February 09, 2014
Immigration Minister's downfall shows his own law is unworkable
The Times reports on the sudden resignation of immigration minister, Mark Harper yesterday, for committing the offence of hiring a cleaner, who was not entitled to be in the country.
According to the report, Mr.Harper said that he had been shown documents by his employee showing that she had indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom but he discovered this week that they were forged.
They say that the incident is hugely embarrassing for Mr Cameron, who has made tackling illegal migration one of his foremost priorities as he seeks to fend off the threat of Ukip. A cornerstone of the Immigration Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is a requirement on employers and landlords to check the migration status of employees and tenants to ensure that they are not in the UK illegally.
The question that now needs to be answered is, if the man who was in charge of the Bill could not tell that his employee was working illegally, then how do the Government expect anybody else to be able to do so? Will employers have the same access to immigration officials as Mr. Harper did? I doubt it very much.
According to the report, Mr.Harper said that he had been shown documents by his employee showing that she had indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom but he discovered this week that they were forged.
They say that the incident is hugely embarrassing for Mr Cameron, who has made tackling illegal migration one of his foremost priorities as he seeks to fend off the threat of Ukip. A cornerstone of the Immigration Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is a requirement on employers and landlords to check the migration status of employees and tenants to ensure that they are not in the UK illegally.
The question that now needs to be answered is, if the man who was in charge of the Bill could not tell that his employee was working illegally, then how do the Government expect anybody else to be able to do so? Will employers have the same access to immigration officials as Mr. Harper did? I doubt it very much.
