Between 4.5 and 8 million illegal immigrants work in the construction, farming, hotel and other sectors in the EU.  One of the factors encouraging illegal immigration into the EU is the possibility of finding work. This legislation aims to reduce that pull factor by targeting the employment of third-country nationals who are illegally staying in the EU.

The Commission’s draft legislation is supposed to complement other measures, such as the “return directive” and the “blue card” directive, the overall aim being to combat illegal immigration more firmly while encouraging legal immigration. 

The “sanctions directive" would introduce minimum penalties at European level against employers of illegal immigrants.  Employers could be fined, forced to pay wages in arrears at legal levels or even banned for up to five years from bidding for public sector contracts or from receiving state aid – whether national or European.

Criminal law penalties in the most serious cases

The directive would also lay down criminal law penalties against employers for repeat offences, where a large number of people in an irregular situation are employed, where the working conditions are exploitative, where the employee is a victim of human trafficking and this is known to the employer, or if the employee is a minor.
 
An employer who is found guilty must also refund any state aid received the previous year and pay a graduated fine according to the number of illegal immigrants employed.  In addition, he must pay a sum equal to the amount of taxes and other levies he would have paid if the worker had been employed legally and, where applicable, the cost of returning the migrant.

Grievance procedure

Parliament also wants Member States to set up mechanisms to enable illegal immigrants to lodge complaints. Third parties designated by Member States, such as voluntary bodies or trade unions, should be allowed to report a guilty employer without running the risk of being subsequently taken to court for assisting someone to stay in the country illegally.  Irregular immigrants will, if they cooperate with the legal action against their employer, be able to get a temporary residence permit.
 
The Member States are asked to conduct effective inspections sufficiently frequently to check on the employment of non-EU nationals in an irregular situation. They must also require employers to check that their non-EU employees have a valid residence permit and inform a national authority of any new recruitment of non-EU nationals.