Clampdown pledged on construction's illegal immigrants

The government has pledged to clampdown on illegal immigration by targeting “rogue employers” across three sectors of the economy, including construction.

Suspected employers will be raided by enforcement teams, immigration minister James Brokenshire told the Times. The other two sectors singled out are care and cleaning.

He said the move was part of efforts to make the UK a more “hostile environment” for illegal immigration.

A raft of measures to crackdown on illegal immigration will be contained in the immigration bill, to be published this autumn.

Construction union GMB said the announcement was “more about grabbing news headlines than tackling exploitation”, and said expanding the role of the existing Gangmasters Licencing Authority was the “only way to deal with criminal gangsters”.