The Byron Burgers are on me.

[vetran]

You don't seem to get what I am commenting about!

I am commenting about this idiotic idea he mentioned:

"There should be a bounty for members of the public who turn in illegals. Say £200 a head?"

How do you suppose members of public - i.e. any average Joe, is going to know or even understand who is illegal, given the complexity of our Immigration laws/rules?
Also they might simply call up police every time they see a person with foreign skin color, for the bounty he talks about!
That reported person could end up being British for all that Mr. general public might know.

Can you say who is illegal (as a general public) just by looking at someone?.. without looking at their papers in detail, and checking through the 1000s of lines of legal wordings, and laws around immigration and rules?
If it was that easy, we won't need immigration department, or immigration specialist lawyers, would we? ...Every average joe public would end up being a legal consultant!!!
Chaos would prevail, at that rate!

suggest a solution.

Mine would be policing the NI numbers. To get an NI number if you don't have a simple case (born here legally) you need a passport validated (or similar) at the local council.

[Flashman]

You don't seem to get what I am commenting about!

I am commenting about this idiotic idea he mentioned:

"There should be a bounty for members of the public who turn in illegals. Say £200 a head?"

How do you suppose members of public - i.e. any average Joe, is going to know or even understand who is illegal, given the complexity of our Immigration laws/rules?
Also they might simply call up police every time they see a person with foreign skin color, for the bounty he talks about!
That reported person could end up being British for all that Mr. general public might know.

Can you say who is illegal (as a general public) just by looking at someone?.. without looking at their papers in detail, and checking through the 1000s of lines of legal wordings, and laws around immigration and rules?
If it was that easy, we won't need immigration department, or immigration specialist lawyers, would we? ...Every average joe public would end up being a legal consultant!!!
Chaos would prevail, at that rate!

I see my suggestion is already winding up the lefties.

Maybe the rates not high enough? Crimestoppers pays up to £1,000 for information on serious crimes.

https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/rewards/

Help locate the UK's most wanted individuals sought in connection for crimes including murder, sexual assault, burglary, violence and more.

We pay cash rewards of up to £1,000 if the information you give to us leads to one or more people being arrested and charged. Less than 1 per cent of people who could claim a reward actually do so"

Or perhaps we should all turn a blind eye. Let employers exploit people. Health and Safety? Minimum wage? Who needs that stuff? Great.

[Kraut]

How do you suppose members of public - i.e. any average Joe, is going to know or even understand who is illegal, given the complexity of our Immigration laws/rules?
[...]
without looking at their papers in detail, and checking through the 1000s of lines of legal wordings, and laws around immigration and rules?
If it was that easy, we won't need immigration department, or immigration specialist lawyers, would we?

Spot on. My own wife was nearly deported (when our daughter was just weeks old), because some friggin' moron in the Home Office was out of their depth when assessing her status and then a bit too eagerly got the enforcement branch on the case. It took a specialist immigration lawyer, approx £2,000 in fees for him, and another half year to clear that mess up. Without the baby she might have spent that time in detention! (Instead she had to report monthly, for six months, because the Home Office took as much time as they legally could to make a decision.)

Funny thing is that after that was all sorted out, she immediately got permanent residence, and our daughter is the only one in the family with a British passport now, because my wife was in fact a permanent resident at time of her birth already, even without formal approval by the Home Office, which got everything completely wrong!

That's how complicated and messy immigration rules are. So the last thing we need is some right-leaning morons to hunt down presumed illegals for dosh.

[SueEllen]

suggest a solution.

Mine would be policing the NI numbers. To get an NI number if you don't have a simple case (born here legally) you need a passport validated (or similar) at the local council.

If two Mary Smiths turn up in two different council offices, say Birmingham and Liverpool, with a genuine British passport how are you going to determine who is the real one?

You are ignoring the issue of how they got a passport already. There are some illegal immigrants who steal someone identity. The clever ones choose a living person who has never had any trouble with the law and doesn't stand out. They get a passport with the help of a dodgy GP and a dodgy solicitor who validate photos.

[LondonManc]

If two Mary Smiths turn up in two different council offices, say Birmingham and Liverpool, with a genuine British passport how are you going to determine who is the real one?

You are ignoring the issue of how they got a passport already. There are some illegal immigrants who steal someone identity. The clever ones choose a living person who has never had any trouble with the law and doesn't stand out. They get a passport with the help of a dodgy GP and a dodgy solicitor who validate photos.

Splendid; we can then catch more than just the illegal immigrant; indeed we can offer them safe passage and a cash reward for shopping the dodgy people.

[SimonMac]

The cleaner in this flat I'm renting between houses (AirBNB) is a Brazilian pretending to be Portuguese.

Quite fit mind...

You are Clive Betts and I claim my £5

[Old Greg]

I would lie to see aggressive tax avoiders interned in the IoM. The tax regime would probably suit them as well.

[SueEllen]

I see my suggestion is already winding up the lefties.

Maybe the rates not high enough? Crimestoppers pays up to £1,000 for information on serious crimes.

No because your idea is stupid.

The government and local councils have enough difficulty dealing with benefit fraud from members of the public "help" in reporting it.

What they find is that that the public give insufficient detail about someone and the benefits they are so called claiming fraudently.

So for example when disability benefit was around people would report say their neighbour or family member for being on it.

If the relevant agency investigated they would find in the vast majority of cases that the person was entitled to it as it either obvious what their disability was e.g. they were blind, had learning disabilities, or that they had a hidden disability like rheumatoid arthritis so were in and out of hospital and under the continuous care of consultants.

The neighbour or family member had simply reported them out of prejudice and spite. Now if a health professional or someone who works for a government department reported them during the course of their work they learnt to take more notice.

In regards to employers they aren't doing right by taking on illegal workers it seems like some businesses e.g. social care, builders, hotels, food industry like taking short cuts to help their profit margins. If they know they were going to be inspected more and so these workers would be found plus the business owners/directors were going to be put in prison for a repeat offence they wouldn't do it.

[vetran]

If two Mary Smiths turn up in two different council offices, say Birmingham and Liverpool, with a genuine British passport how are you going to determine who is the real one?

You are ignoring the issue of how they got a passport already. There are some illegal immigrants who steal someone identity. The clever ones choose a living person who has never had any trouble with the law and doesn't stand out. They get a passport with the help of a dodgy GP and a dodgy solicitor who validate photos.

well when they realise there are two Mary Smiths they can investigate, one of them won't be able to prove who she is. So before the illegal can take out loans in mary's name they get deported.

Isotope analysis might prove useful

We could always go for an identity card.

[vetran]

No because your idea is stupid.

The government and local councils have enough difficulty dealing with benefit fraud from members of the public "help" in reporting it.

What they find is that that the public give insufficient detail about someone and the benefits they are so called claiming fraudently.

So for example when disability benefit was around people would report say their neighbour or family member for being on it.

If the relevant agency investigated they would find in the vast majority of cases that the person was entitled to it as it either obvious what their disability was e.g. they were blind, had learning disabilities, or that they had a hidden disability like rheumatoid arthritis so were in and out of hospital and under the continuous care of consultants.

The neighbour or family member had simply reported them out of prejudice and spite. Now if a health professional or someone who works for a government department reported them during the course of their work they learnt to take more notice.

In regards to employers they aren't doing right by taking on illegal workers it seems like some businesses e.g. social care, builders, hotels, food industry like taking short cuts to help their profit margins. If they know they were going to be inspected more and so these workers would be found plus the business owners/directors were going to be put in prison for a repeat offence they wouldn't do it.

so only give the reward to competent persons.

The businesses are being shown false documents make it impossible for them to be fooled then prosecute hard. e.g. when you register someone's NI number they send you a picture of that person.