UK BANKS TO CROSS CHECK IMMIGRATION STATUS OF EVERYONE WITH A CURRENT ACCOUNT AGAINST HOME OFFICE DATABASE.

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Banks and building societies will carry out checks from January 2018 to see if account holders are legally in the UK.
These checks will be carried on all customers regardless of nationality.

Banks will then have to report to the Home Office with the details any of names they discover and freeze or close the accounts.

Over 70 million accounts will be looked at every three months to confirm the immigration status of the holders.

The move is mandated by the 2016 Immigration Act requiring banks and building societies to monitor the immigration status of current account holders.

Most migrants and ethnic minorities with every right to be in the UK will be affected by the imposition of these new checks.

Flagged up Accounts will still be frozen or closed even if the owner can provide a passport or biometric residence permit showing they are lawfully present in Britain. If such a situation arises, banks have been told to adopt a default position of telling customers to take up the matter with the Home Office regardless of whether the holder has proof to show they are lawfully in Britain or not.

Kenyans in the UK assessment of the proposed measures has lead us to believe the following.

1. Most banks might be reluctant to offer services even to legal migrants due to fear of monitoring the status quarterly although the banking laws ban discrimination against legally resident customers.

2.  Rather than encouraging illegal migrants to go home, the new Home Office checks will simply drive them even further into the underground economy.

3. Bank accounts for hire will be on the rise, a situation where those on the clear will open bank accounts for the purpose of lending to the affected lot.

4.  The home office is creating a hostile environment for immigrants in efforts to frustrate the same individuals in future when they will be required by the same Home Office to provide proof of address in form of a bank account to support their application.

5. Most of the targeted illegal immigrants will neither be caught nor lose sleep over this, they have ways of going around the system and actually its the legal lot that will be inconvenienced.

We still don't have a clear picture of who will be on the Home Office database but for now, it's been made clear the list will be from anti-fraud organization Cifas on people who are liable for removal or deportation from the UK or who are said to have absconded from immigration control. On the other hand the Home Office says action will be taken on 'Disqualified persons' A disqualified person includes someone who is in the UK and does not have the required leave to enter or remain in the UK.

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Theadditional link below with more information was also submitted by Kui Kirumba thank you sister.
https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/immigration-act-2014