Regular immigration checks on bank account holders
Four years on from the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, defending her plans to create a “hostile environment” for illegal migrants, her measures continue to bite.
The UK Immigration Act 2014 introduced a system of identity checks which were created to curb illegal migrants from accessing privately rented housing, gaining driving licences and opening new bank accounts.
From next year, extended measures will require banks and building societies to carry out regular immigration checks on all existing customers holding current accounts.
Any accounts belonging to customers identified as being unlawfully resident in the UK will either be closed down or frozen.
Quarterly checks
Currently, the Home Office provides details of known illegal migrants who are disqualified from opening or operating a current account to a fraud prevention database (Cifas). This data is accessed by banks and building societies when carrying out checks on customers seeking to open new current accounts.
Under the new arrangement, quarterly immigration checks will be undertaken on all existing current account holders. Therefore, current account holders who may have opened their bank accounts during a period of legal residence but who, for whatever reason later lose their right to remain in the UK, could potentially be caught by these new measures.
Where a bank or building society identifies as part of a check that an account holder is a ‘disqualified person’, it must send a detailed notification to the Home Office. Upon receipt, the immigration authorities will then decide whether to investigate further, apply to freeze the account or require the bank or building society to close the account in question.
A Home Office spokesperson defended the introduction of the checks saying: “As approved by parliament in December 2016, from January banks and building societies will be required to carry out regular checks on the immigration status of all current account holders against the details of known illegal migrants to establish whether their customers are known to be in the UK unlawfully.”
Tougher enforcement
There is no doubt these new measures are designed to ensure tougher enforcement of UK immigration laws. However, given the Home Office’s track record in maintaining accurate immigration records, there are genuine fears that legally held bank accounts will end up being blocked or frozen on the basis of either outdated or erroneous Home Office data.
If just one person is wrongly identified as a ‘disqualified person’ and denied access to their bank account, the Home Office could find itself at the centre of an unforgiving media storm.
