Employers of illegal labour should share blame with criminal travel ‘firms’

Illegal immigration and the consequent loss of life will continue so long as the high price of a ticket for the passage is perceived as a sound investment.

This depends upon the prospects for gaining illegal employment, on the likelihood of being caught and the extent to which this would disrupt further employment, on being able to conserve much of the income from a very low wage by subsisting in housing conditions which should be regarded as unacceptable here and the ease with which the funds accumulated can be returned home.

The motivation could be weakened by action at every link in this chain. Employers of illegal labour could be jailed and their businesses closed down. Greater effort could be made to detect and apprehend illegal workers. They could then serve a term of imprisonment before being deported rather than simply being deported or bailed pending deportation, in either case to return speedily to illegal work. The minimum wage legislation could be supplemented or replaced by a minimum living standard, including housing, so it becomes illegal to use a work force living in this country in Third World conditions.

The international transfer of money could be more tightly policed.

In reality, however, political interest in such immigration is only concerned with fobbing off and pacifying those of the public who object to it or with harnessing their anger to other purposes.

Most of our political class is wedded to expanding the UK economy by growing the UK population through migration, to the benefit of those at the top end of society and the detriment of those at the bottom or who simply wish us to retain our country. Those politicians taking a different line are generally attracted by the prospect that the poor conditions for such migrants will ultimately turn them into leftleaning voters.

Businesses that are only viable with access to labour which is cheap to the employer (the ultimate cost being borne by others) should either close down or be offshored to poorer countries. They have no right to lure people here.

Simply punishing the illegal travel firms on those occasions when they are conspicuously negligent and incompetent is no answer to the problem.

JG RISELEY Harcourt Drive, Harrogate