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Working Illegally – the plight of UK residents denied the right to work

For best image quality view the film in "Full Page" mode
Running time: 28 minutes 39 seconds

People awaiting a decision about their right to remain in the United Kingdom, typically those seeking asylum although it can apply to other categories as well, are denied the right to work here, and any work they manage to get is therefore illegal and unregulated. They may also be denied all state benefits, leaving them with NO legal way to survive except begging or help from charities.

A government that frequently declares its commitment to stopping foreigners working for less than the minimum wage and undermining the opportunities of British nationals to find work is the same government that encourages (one might say "requires") these detainees to take work inside the detention centres for £1 or £1.25 per hour, which feeds the profits of favoured private companies outside. The sweat shops of Dickens' London could hardly have come up with a more exploitative arrangement than this.

Although this film was made in 2015 pratically nothing has changed in the picture it presents, except that private company involvement in running detention centres and policing immigration has expanded greatly and conditions for detainees have in many instances deteriorated.

To see the details of some of these negative changes and worsening of the inhuman treatment inflicted on these people please visit some of the links below:


Report of the Global Detention Project, 1st October 2020

Conditions in Detention Facilities (2019)

Brook House Detention Centre, Gatwick

Harmondsworth and Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centres near Heathrow Airport

Report on an unannounced inspection of Morton Hall Removal Centre, Lincolnshire




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