MPs are also worried that some migrants are working ‘excessive hours’ in ‘exploitative conditions’
Ministers reportedly have no idea how many migrants are outsatying their visas (Image: Getty)
Concerned MPs have claimed that Home Office staff have no idea how many migrants are working illegally in the UK. They reportedly fail to check exit data under the skilled worker visa scheme and are unsure how many migrants are overstaying.
Around 1.2 million people have come to the UK on the visas since the scheme was launched in 2020. However, a report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found ministers have never checked exit data. It was also revealed that some migrants are “working excessive hours” and in “exploitative conditions”.
As reported by The Sun, MPs claim officials do not know “what proportion of people return to their home country after their visa has expired, and how many may be working illegally in the United Kingdom.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, the chairman of the PAC, said: “There has long been mounting evidence of serious issues with the system, laid bare once again in our inquiry.
“And yet basic information, such as how many people on skilled worker visas have been modern slavery victims, and whether people leave the UK after their visas expire, seems to still not have been gathered by Government.”
It comes after the Daily Express exposed asylum seekers working illegally outside a migrant hotel in London. At least 10 different men were caught leaving the hotel before doing delivery work over two nights.
Food delivery firms have been warned about using asylum seekers (Image: Daily Express)
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work in the UK for at least a year when waiting for claims to be processed. Even those given permits cannot work as delivery drivers under Home Office rules.
Food delivery firms, such as Deliveroo, Just East and Uber Eats, are being urged to improve the security of their mobile phone apps to stop asylum seekers working unlawfully. The Home Office wants them to add a facial recognition feature to apps used to assign jobs to drivers.
This would ensure that only the registered user is able to use the app. It is feared that people with the right to work in the UK are registering accounts and then selling access to asylum seekers.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
