Bosses employing illegal immigrants to be named and shamed in new crackdown

The names of companies and directors will be published on the website of the UK Border Agency, together with the number of illegal immigrants they employed and the level of the fine, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced.

However, businesses said the Government was using them as scapegoats for its failure to stop illegal immigration.

The Home Office has launched a crackdown on bosses who employ illegal immigrants

They said the strategy --which includes fining bosses up to £10,000 for breaking the law - could drive hundreds of small firms to the wall. Since February, £2.3million in fines has been collected.

Miss Smith declared: 'Good employers have everything to gain from us clamping down on the bad ones.' But the Federation of Small Businesses said employers could not be expected to know if a passport was real or a forgery.

Spokesman Simon Briault said: 'This is part of the Government's attempt to make employers police immigration policy and criminalise them if they make a mistake.

'Small firms do not have human resources departments and legal advisors to help them.'

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: 'The Government must ensure that reliable advice and support is always available so that those firms who are law-abiding don't find themselves falling foul of this potentially very damaging punishment.'

The Home Office also announced that there would be 'automatic deportation' for foreign criminals sentenced to more than 12 months' imprisonment, or for all those who use guns or sell drugs.

Union leaders have also attacked the Government's strategy - saying it could simply drive the worst employers underground.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Naming and shaming is locking the stable door after the bad employer has bolted.

'By the time an employer gets on this register, their exploited and abused migrant workforce will probably have been kicked out of the country.'

There are an estimated 500,000 illegal residents in the UK.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'Announcing yet another reorganisation of the UK Borders Agency and putting names on a website is no substitute for real action.

Naming and shaming is no substitute for catching and convicting.

'All of this shows why we need an integrated Border Police Force bringing together the police with immigration and customs, to make our borders safer and the immigration system less chaotic.'

But the plans attracted support from Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne.

'It has taken 10 years for this Government to work out that the best way to tackle illegal immigration is by cracking down on rogue bosses,' he said.

'It is better late than never, but it does not say much for the urgency with which ministers are tackling our chaotic controls on migration.

'We need exit checks immediately so we can be sure that the terms of temporary visas are respected.'