More than 440 police officers are to be shifted to immigration duties as part of a drive against illegal migrants billed yesterday as an announcement of 800 "new immigration officers" by the Home Office.

The home secretary, John Reid, promised in July to double the number of immigration enforcement officers as part of a plan to rescue his department's immigration and nationality directorate, which was declared "not fit for purpose" after the foreign prisoners scandal.

The Home Office said yesterday the extra 800 staff would boost the number of immigration officers working on enforcement by 25% and would be mainly used in "intelligence-led units" in a drive against the employers of illegal migrants.
But Lib Dem and Conservative politicians complained that the headline figure of 800 new immigration officers was misleading as it included taking 400 police constables and 40 sergeants off the beat to be seconded to deal with the crisis in the immigration service.

But a Home Office spokeswoman said they would be acting as immigration officers after being formally seconded to the immigration service. The police would be vital in bringing their "sophisticated intelligence skills" into the drive against illegal migration. The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) will also be involved in the drive to target the criminal gangs behind the trade in illegal migrants.

The package included the announcement that a Crimestoppers freephone hotline for the public to report suspected illegal migrants will go live in January. Half a million leaflets are to go out telling employers what they need to do to comply with the law.

The Home Office also said it was exploring ways to find a further 650 spaces to detain illegal migrants and failed asylum seekers pending their deportation. It is believed the options include finding new prison ships to lease. Ministers also said they were considering ways of minimising the number of high court judicial review applications made by those who face removal or deportation.

Mr Reid said: "Anecdotal evidence suggests that around three-quarters of illegal entrants have been brought to the UK through organised crime. Soca has already committed itself to targeting around a quarter of its operational effort at organised criminal gangs who exploit immigration - the intelligence they can provide to IND [the Immigration and Nationality Directorate] is invaluable."

But the shadow home secretary, David Davis, said the government's policy so far on people trafficking had been one of neglect: "For over a decade at least there have been laws in place to prosecute the employment of illegal workers, yet up until the tragedy at Morecambe Bay, there were just a handful of prosecutions."

He complained about the "spin" behind the announcement, saying the reality was not 800 new immigration officers but hundreds of police being taken off the beat to deal with the crisis. The Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg was equally unimpressed: "A truly integrated border force requires new, not just redeployed, resources. It isn't enough simply to shift police officers away from their current duties," he said.