The Home Office has claimed that businesses in Sheffield can now be reassured that employees from overseas are working for them legally, due to the introduction of identity verification cards.
Foreign nationals will now be able to record their biometric data and be issued with an ID authentication card in order to prove their identity should they need to do so for work purposes.
Identity verification details such as fingerprints and digital photographs will be entered into a database as part of the government’s National Identity Scheme.
Visiting the former steel city yesterday (December 17th) to open the UK Border Agency’s Vulcan House building, home secretary Jacqui Smith commented: “ID cards will give employers a secure way of checking a migrant’s right to work and study in the UK and help people prove they are who they say are.
“The points system will ensure that only those we need – and no more – can come here to work.”
According to a Home Office statement identity verification fraud costs the UK £1.7 billion a year.