NEW laws designed to prevent bogus asylum seekers working in the black economy have added to red tape nightmares faced by legitimate employers, according to an Ilkley nursing home manager.

Next month a Home Office law designed to restrict the employment opportunities of illegal immigrants comes into force.

It places the onus on employers to make sure that the immigrants they employ are not in the country illegally by making rigorous checks of the documents they produce.

But according to one Ilkley employer, the laws mean a massive increase in red tape. Traditionally, the caring services employ a significant proportion of overseas labour.

Bryan Jeffkyns , the manager of Red Gables Nursing Home, Parish Ghyll Drive, Ilkley, told the Gazette he had been studying new Home Office guidelines about employing foreign workers.

"The Home Office decree tells us what we are going to do, otherwise they are going to put us in prison," said Mr Jeffkyns.

Under the new laws employers have to make sure that their employees are entitled to work under the immigration rules which means studying birth certificates and other documents, verifying photographs and dates of birth.

Once the employer is satisfied that the documents produced are genuine, haven't expired and relate to the employee in question, they must then be scanned or photocopied on to a data base kept by the employer.

Red Gables, which has around 34 elderly residents in its care, employs more than 30 people, five of whom are from overseas.

Mr Jeffkyns said that the Home Office guidelines suggested checking the birth certificates of everyone employed by the nursing home to prevent accusations of discrimination against foreigners.

He said: "They have given us more work but no more money - it is fairly complicated for us. The big problem is we have got to be careful of prejudice - nothing is simple nowadays."

People already working at the home will have to be checked, even if they are from the majority of the new ten EU countries, and if they are registered with the Home Office, their registration will have to be checked.

And Mr Jeffkyns said that the Home Office guidelines affecting employers were backed up with stiff penalties, including the possibility of a jail sentence for employers who did not comply.

A spokesman for the Home Office offered three reasons for the changes being introduced:

1. To make it harder for people who did not have permission to work in the United Kingdom to obtain work by using forged or false documents.

2. To make it easier for the authorities to ensure that employers employed people who are legally permitted to work in the United Kingdom.

3. To strengthen the Government's controls on tackling illegal working by making it easier for the United Kingdom immigration Service to take action again employers who deliberately used illegal labour.

The spokesman said: "By making these checks, employers can be sure they will not break the law by employing illegal workers.

"These changes have been drawn up so that people who do have the right to work in this country, including those who live in our minority ethnic communities, can prove this swiftly and easily."