Immigration check on 70m bank accounts

BANKS have agreed to help carry out immigration checks on 70million accounts to root out those living in Britain illegally.

The Home Office expects to identify 6,000 visa overstayers, failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders facing deportation. The accounts of those identified will be shut down or frozen.

Building societies will also take part in the checks, which are to be carried out quarterly from January.

Officials say freezing accounts that hold significant sums ‘will create a powerful incentive [for those involved] to agree to voluntary departure’ so they can secure their money once they have left the country. However, campaigners have warned that the Home Office’s record meant it could not be trusted to implement the system properly.

Scores of EU nationals were last month wrongly sent deportation letters. Banks have been told to advise any customers who query a decision to take up the matter with the Home Office, even if they have proof they are lawfully able to live in Britain, according to The Guardian. Lenders will check the identity of every current account holder against a Home Office supplied database held by the anti-fraud organisation Cifas.

It includes details of those whom the Home Office regard as liable for removal or deportation. Safeguards are included to prevent the closure of a bank account which would leave the holder without the means to live.

Account closure can also be delayed to recover debts or deal with complex joint accounts. An official Home Office review acknowledged ‘the proposed measures may have the potential to impact on the appetite of firms to offer banking services to legal migrants who do not have permanent leave to remain in the UK’ and promises to monitor the situation.

Officials add that banking laws ban discrimination against legally resident customers. A Home Office spokesman said: ‘From January banks and building societies will be required to carry out regular checks on the immigration status of all current account holders against the details of known illegal migrants to establish whether their customers are known to be in the UK unlawfully.’