GB News host Emily Carver has criticised plans for delivery companies to implement facial recognition checks as merely "the bare minimum" in preventing illegal immigrants from working as riders.Immigration Enforcement teams are preparing to launch what officials describe as a "nationwide blitz" on illegal working hotspots, with particular focus on the gig economy.The strategic operation will bring together officers nationwide to target migrants suspected of working illegally whilst receiving taxpayer-funded accommodation or financial support.Speaking on GB News, former immigration minister Kevin Foster said: "There is certainly technology that these firms could be using. Just think of our own banking apps, where virtually any transaction can require you to show your face or use biometrics." READ THE FULL STORY HERE
00:00Kevin, it does seem like this is a problem that is not going away.
00:04I mean, ultimately, how is it even possible to enforce an identity check when someone could just use someone else's ID?
00:12I mean, unless we have police officers on every street corner stopping people on motorcycles and forcing them to take off their helmets, I mean, it's just not going to happen, is it?
00:21Well, Tom, there is certainly technology that the firms could be using.
00:25We just think of our own banking apps where virtually any transaction you can be asked to show your face, i.e. your biometrics, to the app.
00:33It doesn't strike me as impossible for some of these delivery firms to look at, for example, if you accept a job, a quick scan of your face in the way when you look at your phone to unlock it.
00:43That technology is readily available.
00:46I think the government needs to question why that isn't now being used.
00:50I noticed some of the reports are that, for example, it requires a daily scan.
00:53Well, we wouldn't accept that for our banking app, would we?
00:56That, you know, as long as your face is scanned once in the day, you could then make lots of transactions on it.
01:02So, exactly the same should be on these types of apps.
01:05And I suspect it's the companies dragging their feet because, at the end of the day, you know, this bountiful supply, as they would see it, of cheap labour who are happy to work for below the minimum wage and taking the ride.
01:16Sorry, Kevin, but that should be the bare minimum, shouldn't it?
01:18Face ID, every job you have, safety of people who are receiving the items from Uber Eats, delivery, whatever it is, and also to try and prevent illegal immigrants from taking these jobs to begin with.
01:29But do we need to go a step further and say to the likes of Uber Eats, say to the likes of Deliveroo and Just Eat or whatever, we're not going to let you do your business in this country until you can tell us, until you can tell us that you have done absolutely everything you can to prevent illegal immigrants from using your app and exploiting the use of your app in this way?
01:49Emily, absolutely. We should set minimum standards. And also, by the way, not just illegal migrants.
01:55This is an opportunity for those who have criminal records where really you would not want them delivering stuff to your house.
02:03But Kevin, would you put a pause on them actually doing business in this country?
02:07So, say, you know what, you're not going to be allowed to even, you know, have your Deliveroo until you can confirm to us that there are no illegal migrants working on your app.
02:16Well, I think, Emily, it would be perfectly reasonable to say to these companies you've had long enough to implement the type of biometrics virtually every bank's been using for years and is readily available and is used by every smartphone, even when it just locks itself and you haven't looked at it for a couple of weeks or a couple of minutes even rather than a couple of weeks.
02:34So, I think we could certainly be, the government could make this type of requirement.
02:38They've had plenty of notice and, you know, it's almost become ludicrous that you can go to an asylum hotel, as the Shadow Home Secretary did, and see the bikes piled up.
02:46It doesn't take much of an investigation to see what's going on.
02:50Yeah, I suppose that there are going to be some questions in terms of the deliverability of this.
02:54I understand, like, face biometrics are to do with the smartphone rather than the individual app concerned.
02:59I mean, I suppose you could find a way to get around that by just linking your face to your phone and pretending that that's someone else's phone, if you see what I mean.
03:07There do seem to be perhaps more difficult technological challenges.
03:11And what I want to get to here is really, are we at risk of outsourcing border control to technology start-ups?
03:20Because surely this wouldn't be a problem had we just got control of our borders.
03:25Had the government got a grip on illegal immigration, we wouldn't need to be talking about this extra regulation for some successful companies.
03:35Well, Tom, I wouldn't agree with the idea that it's purely about smartphones, you know, apps.
03:39And as we said, bank phones use it, bank apps use the biometric checks very regularly.
03:46Yeah, of course, if we get the core of this is actually not having tens of thousands of people who've entered the country illegally sat around waiting for decisions and actually have to start to remove some of them and ending this flow of cheap labor for this app.
04:00But even without that particular challenge, you would have the issue of, for example, someone with a criminal record who you'd rather was not popping around your house to deliver your takeaway, potentially pretending to use some using someone else's account by lack of verification.
04:13And again, this is technology that is really quite simple and is used by virtually every transactional app going.
04:20Yeah, and it's, I mean, you know, the benefit is for these companies because they can just pay their workers far less because they've got an abundance of potentially illegal migrants to work for them.
04:29But Kevin Foster, thank you very much indeed, former immigration minister.
