Illegal immigrant workers' wages to be seized under Tory plans

Police would be able to seize the wages of illegal workers as proceeds of crime under government plans to be set out in next week's Queen's Speech.

PM David Cameron will say on Thursday that it has become "too easy" for migrants not entitled to be in the country to exploit loopholes.

At the moment, firms can be fined up to £20,000 for employing illegal workers.

Labour said more needed to be done to protect the country's borders, and called for laws to tackle exploitation.

The proposal to treat the wages of illegal workers as proceeds of crime forms part of what the prime minister will say is a "tougher but fairer" approach to immigration that will be adopted by the Conservative government.

However, the scale of the challenge facing ministers in reducing levels of legal immigration will be highlighted again on Thursday when the latest official figures on net migration are published.

-bbc