Home Office targets illegal IT workers

IT is one of several industry sectors being targeted by Home Office immigration 'hit squads' with the aim of removing illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers at a rate of 2,500 a week.

In the latest shake-up of immigration legislation the government has set its sights on employers recruiting staff working illegally.

Although the problem is deemed to be particularly severe in lower wage employment sectors, such as catering and cleaning, the IT sector has been singled out as being disproportionately affected.

The White Paper on asylum seekers, published earlier this month by the Home Office, includes a code of conduct for employers on the hiring of foreign staff who do not have the right to work in the UK.

It has warned that employers involved in deliberately bringing illegal immigrants to Britain to work could face criminal proceedings and custodial sentences of up to 14 years. In addition, employers could be fined £5,000 for each illegal employee.

Stephanie Slanickova, a lawyer in the employment law division at Tarlo Lyons, advised employers to check the documentation of all new employees to ensure that they have the right to work in the UK.

But she admitted that even those who fall foul of the law are unlikely to suffer any legal repercussions.

"The number of employers who have been successfully prosecuted under section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act show that measures have not proved an effective deterrent," she said.

Figures from the Home Office show that only 33 employers were prosecuted between 1997 and 2000.

But Tim Conway, a director at supplier trade body the Computer Software and Services Association, denied that the IT industry had a problem with illegal workers.

"We would not want to protect employers who were employing people illegally. But if there are shortages we want employers to have access to suitably skilled people," he said.

Meanwhile the European Commission has accepted an action plan that will see IT workers imported into the Eurozone to fill technology skill gaps.

The Action Plan for Skills and Mobility, which outlines increased legal immigration to help cover skills shortages especially in the IT sector, recommends bringing in skilled labour from outside the 15-nation European Union to plug IT skills gaps which are projected to reach 1.6 million by 2003.

Despite over 350,000 job cuts across the telecoms, computer and electronics industries during 2001, the Commission's action plan stated that Europe's long-term demand for skilled IT people remains strong, and that short-term events do not undermine the basic growth trend.