A Home Office-funded app is helping Channel migrants find work in the UK after arriving illegally, sparking outrage among critics who say it creates a “pull factor” for illegal migration. Just Good Work – which was developed partly by Migrant Help, a charity with £385million of Home Office funding – is helping asylum seekers search for jobs while awaiting a decision on their application to stay in Britain, reports The Telegraph.
The mobile app has been accused of promoting “incentives” for illegal migration, telling users the UK is a “beautiful country with great transport links for easy national and international travel”. It also reassures prospective migrants that the Government “welcomes people who want to work” with a “relatively high minimum wage [and] paid time off”.
Meanwhile, the app adds that Britain offers opportunities to learn more about theatre and music upon arrival and many organisations will help them “when things do go wrong”. UK culture is additionally taught in the app, saying: “It is considered very rude to push your way to the front of a queue in Britain. You must wait your turn.”
Border Force officers seen bringing boatload of migrants into Britain
It came as Border Force officers were on Wednesday seen bringing a boatload of migrants into Britain, having picked them up in the Channel, in the first such scenes for more than a week.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “The Home Office should not be funding or endorsing anything that markets Britain as a place to work, earn and settle while people are still in the asylum system.” He added: “If Labour were serious about stopping the crossings, they would stop funding schemes that make life in the UK look easier after illegal entry. Deterrence only works if illegal arrival carries real consequences, not state-backed help to put down roots.”
Migrant Help is expected to be given £385million in Home Office funding to support asylum seekers and refugees by 2029. They have worked with the company Fifty-Eight Global on the app through their flagship “Migrant Workers Advice and Guidance” project.
App exposes ‘complete lies’ behind Labour’s promises
Reform UK MP Lee Anderson said: “Labour is the party of open borders. This app exposes the complete lies behind their promise to ‘smash the gangs’. Instead of stopping illegal crossings, they are using hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to throw up yet another neon welcome sign for illegal migrants.”
William Yarwood, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the charity should receive no more public money. “With unemployment at a four-year high, the focus should be on getting people already here into work, not using taxpayer money to bankroll Migrant Help and build pathways into the labour market for illegals,” he added.
The Home Office has previously confirmed it has funded the app in an official statement. “We have also continued to fund projects [including] a free interactive ‘Just Good Work’ app,” the department said in September 2023. However, a Home Office spokesperson now says: “The Home Office does not fund this app and has no involvement in its content.”
A spokesperson for Migrant Help said: “Migrant Help’s contribution to the Just Good Work app is limited to a small, clearly defined section that explains UK laws and restrictions, including the fact that people seeking asylum are not permitted to work in almost all circumstances. This information helps prevent individuals from being drawn into illegal work, where they are at high risk of exploitation by organised criminal gangs.”
