Landlords will be expected to evict tenants who have lost their right to remain in England in a new clamp down on illegal immigration.
Under measures to be proposed in the upcoming Immigration Bill, landlords will be required to check a migrant’s immigration status before offering a lease
The Home Office would issue a notice to inform the landlord if their tenant’s asylum application failed, and landlord would be able to end tenancy agreements with such tenants at short notice, without a court order in some circumstances.
Repeatedly failing to check a tenants’ immigration status or failing to evict tenants found to be illegal immigrants could result in fines or a prison term of up to five years for the landlord.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark said:
“We are determined to crack down on rogue landlords who make money out of illegal immigration – exploiting vulnerable people and undermining our immigration system.
“In future, landlords will be required to ensure that the people they rent their properties to are legally entitled to be in the country.
“We will also require them to meet their basic responsibilities as landlords, cracking down on those who rent out dangerous, dirty and overcrowded properties.”
The proposals come as the British and French governments struggle to cope with the ongoing crisis in Calais, where large number of illegal immigrants attempt to smuggle themselves in lorries through the Channel Tunnel into the UK.
The government hopes that working with landlords to discover and deport illegal immigrants will work as a deterrent to immigrants attempting to illegally enter the country.
On Sunday, Swedish justice and migration minister Morgan Johansson blamed the Calais crisis on Britain and France’s failure to take “responsibility” for accepting more asylum seekers, and accused Prime Minister David Cameron of “playing politics” with migrants’ lives.
