As part of the strategy to end the "small boats" crisis, Yvette Cooper warns that raids on eateries, construction companies, and other businesses that are unlawfully hiring immigrants in the UK will intensify.

The Home Secretary emphasised that additional clandestine operations would be initiated to combat criminal groups operating behind the cross-Channel crossings.

Top French officials, such as the mayor of Calais, have maintained that, in comparison to other European nations, Britain is a "El Dorado" for migrants since there is no national ID card scheme and it is simpler for them to work without a permit.Ms Cooper stressed that migrants in the UK illegally could not claim benefits.

But she added: “We do think that there needs to be much stronger action and enforcement against illegal working, including against employers who are exploiting people and making profits out of migration.

“That is why this summer we launched a major new programme to increase action against illegal working, increasing raids, increasing enforcement,” she added, speaking on BBC radio.

“That has led to an increase in fines...against employers, stronger action being taken against employers.

“We want to continue upgrading that.”

The Home Office warns bosses that they could be jailed for five years and be hit with an unlimited fine if they are found guilty of employing someone who they knew or had “reasonable cause to believe” did not have the right to work in the UK.

Firms can also be given a civil penalty fine of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker they employ if they fail to do proper checks on them to ascertain if they have the right to work in the UK.

But French ministers have criticised the UK’s labour laws and Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart said: “At some point, we’re going to have to have a showdown with this government” to avoid “in fifty years’ time (being) still at the same level, with people wanting to go to England because it continues to be an El Dorado.”

Didier Leschi, Director of the French Office of Immigration and Integration, has also argued: “The issue for England is to have an internal system that appears to be an El Dorado - and probably wrongly so - since it’s a country where you can work very easily without having a residence permit.”

Sir Keir Starmer was in Rome on Monday for talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on dealing with the migration crisis.

The Prime Minister stressed that “upstream work” was behind Italy’s success in reducing by around two thirds the number of migrants risking their lives by seeking to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to reach the southern European country.

Visiting a co-ordination centre for the crackdown on migration, he said: “I’ve long believed, by the way, that prevention and stopping people traveling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue.

“So I am very interested to know how that upstream work went, looking, of course, at other schemes, looking forward to my bilateral with the prime minister this afternoon, but we’ve already got a shared intent to work together on this trade, this vile trade, of pushing people across borders.”Ms Cooper emphasised that Italy had focused on migration prevention work with countries across North Africa to stop boats leaving Tunisia and other countries, targeting criminal gangs, stronger enforcement, and swift returns of failed asylum seekers.

“In each of those three areas, we are also working to do prevention work, to do much stronger law enforcement and we have also increased returns over the summer,” she said.

“The rules need to be respected and enforced.”

On dismantling the criminal gangs, she added: “We do want to use greater covert techniques, things like covert cameras and operations, and investing substantial sums in upgrading our intelligence and analytical services.”

More broadly on addressing the “small boats” crisis, she added: “We think the biggest changes that we can make in tackling this problem is by going after the criminal gangs and by having proper enforcement work under way right across Europe.

“That is why we are upgrading the enforcement work, recruiting additional police, security officers to go after the gangs, with new technology in place as well.”

Martin Hewitt, a former chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and ex-Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, has been appointed to run a new Border Security Command which will co-ordinate the UK’s response and be empowered to lead joint investigations with other countries.

Ms Cooper also stressed that more work would be done to stop boats that have been launched into the Channel from leaving shallow waters and then risking lives as the depths get deeper.

The French government has come under fire for allegedly not doing enough to prevent inflatable boats that are packed too full of people—men, women, and children—from leaving the country's north and into dangerously deep waters.

Eight people lost their lives trying to cross the Channel on Sunday, according to French authorities, making 46 people have died in attempted crossings since the year began. The deaths occurred after the boat encountered difficulties.

SOURCE:BBC NEWS