I read a report in the Hunts
Post24 online today about a raid on a takeaway restaurant named Hot Pizza
on a High Street in St. Neots by a team of the Home Office Immigration
Enforcement Officials supposedly through a tip-off.
During the raid a 21 year old Turkish national was apprehended and
questioned for working in the kitchen which is against the conditions of his
leave.
The report which was posted by Hywel
Barrett states that “checks revealed
that the man was working in breach of his visa and must now comply with bail
conditions while the Home Office works to return him to Turkey”.
The report ended with the
statement that “Officers are now
considering whether Hot Spot Pizza will face any action”.
On reading
this article and with the statement at the end of the report in mind, my mind
quickly went back to another recent report about how a Home Office Minister had
to resign because he employed an “illegal Immigrant” to work as a cleaner in
his house.
I
suddenly remembered I wrote and abandoned (an action I now admit I regret) because
of other exigencies that reared its (I dare say ugly) head at the time and
quickly fished it out to share with you.
The
reason I want to share the article with you now is simply because of today’s
report mentioned above and the fact that the Home Office is considering whether
Hot Spot Pizza will face any action and yet no consideration of such was ever
suggested by the same Home Office officials when the report about the Home
Office Minister broke out.
Here’s
the Article.
There
is an adage in my language that says that “When you are digging a grave for your
enemies, be careful not to dig it too deep just in case you mistakenly fall
into it yourself”.
The
import of this adage played out recently when the news broke that the Honourable
Immigration Minister Mark Harper MP has resigned from his Cabinet post because
his cleaner (Ms Isabella Acevedo) does not have the right to work in the
UK.
A
lot has been said and written about this matter. Some insisting that the
Immigration Minister has broken the law and pontificating on what sanctions (if
any) he could or should face given his role in pushing through Parliament the
constant changes to Immigration Rules and Legislation. Another reason adduced
by those with this school of thought is the fact that Mr. Harper is part of
those that formulated the policy that imposes penalty fine of £5000 - £10000
(per employee) on employers found to employ migrants without the right to work
in the UK.
The
Immigration Minister on the other hand is denying any illegality on his part. He
based part of his defence on the fact that he took careful steps to ensure that
Ms Acevedo would be considered ‘self-employed’.
I
don’t wish to dwell too much on illegality or otherwise of this matter other
than to use the adage mentioned above as a food of thought for those in charge
of formulating policies on Immigration Rules to always bear in mind that
whatever changes they are bringing into the Rules must have human face - just
in case the same Rules catches them with their hands in the cookie jar.
I’m
sure that Mr. Harper and others in position of authority never thought when
making those incessant changes to the Immigration Rules that they will ever be at
the receiving end of the same laws they were promulgating.
A
word, they say, is enough for the wise.
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