‘We don’t have the staff to catch illegal immigrants’

ILLEGAL immigrants in Britain have a “very, very slim chance” of being caught, the union leader of border workers warned yesterday.

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‘We don’t have the staff to catch illegal immigrants’

Lucy Moreton claimed hundreds of thousands of migrants were able to live in the country undetected due to a lack of staff. 

She said: “If you are here illegally you can survive very well. You access medical services, your child can go to school. The chances of us catching you are very, very slim. 

“If you don’t break the law we are not going to get you as we don’t have the resources.” 

Ms Moreton spoke ahead of appearing before the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into Brexit planning, where she voiced concern about staff shortfalls. 

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Moreton told MPs none of the cash for Brexit planning had gone on more staff to tackle the migration

She claimed none of the £50million the Home Office has spent this year on Brexit planning had gone on staff. 

And David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, told the committee that the Government did not know how many illegal migrants were in the country. 

He said the Home Office should be able to get “very close” to understanding the difference between the numbers of migrants known to have arrived and those who have left. 

But he told MPs: “Then there are those that arrive clandestinely, of which they have no knowledge, unless there is some encounter with those individuals. Obviously that number is much harder to get a grip on. 

“Yes, I think there ought to be a better idea, an estimate if you like, of what that number is. The Home Office should have some better estimate. 

“But it would be extremely difficult to be precise about it.” 

A Home Office spokesman said: “Border Force and Immigration Enforcement should be judged on their results, not staff numbers. Recent successes speak for themselves, such as seizing a record amount of cocaine and returning 6,300 foreign national offenders last year – the highest number ever. 

“It is harder than ever before for those with no right to be here to remain in the UK. Whether it is working, renting a property, opening a bank account or driving a car, we can now take tougher action on those who flout the law.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s foreign aid budget and its contributions to the European Union budget have continued to soar.

Moreton’s comments come shortly after David Wood, a former Director General of Immigration Enforcement, revealed there are “probably over a million foreigners here illegally” and “no one could ever remove them really”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd confessed she could neither confirm nor deny the figure, having no real clue how many illegal migrants have entered the country.

Pressure on the Border Force has only increased as funding has fallen, with some 56,000 attempts on Britain’s frontiers — an average of 153 a day — being intercepted in 2016 alone.

Monitoring of those who make it through appears to be sub par, with the Rudd Home Office admitting it has lost track of 56,000 illegal migrants — including over 700 ex-cons — who were supposed to be deported…