The location of hotels housing asylum seekers will be shared with food delivery companies as part of a crackdown on illegal working, the Home Office has said.
The agreement with Deliveroo, Just East and Uber Eats enables the firms to identify behaviour which indicates illegal working, such as an account spending a lot of time near one of the hotels.
The measure is also aimed at stopping delivery riders sharing their accounts with migrants who do not have the right to work in the UK.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work for the first 12 months of being in the UK, or until their asylum application is approved.
But concerns have been raised that some migrants in the hotels have been earning money on the apps.
Last month, the food delivery firms committed to tightening checks on riders’ identities and whether they had a right to work in the UK.
The Home Office said this action had led to thousands of people being removed from the platforms, and it hoped the new measures would go further.
“Illegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime,” said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
“By enhancing our data sharing with delivery companies, we are taking decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement.”
Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats said they were committed to the plan and would be stepping up enforcement.
It comes as the government on Wednesday unveiled wide-ranging sanctions aimed at preventing illegal migration to the UK.
The government released a list of 25 individuals and entities being targeted, including a small boat supplier in Asia and gang leaders based in the Balkans and North Africa.
The list also included people accused of sourcing fake passports, middlemen facilitating illicit payments and gang members involved in people-smuggling via lorries and small boats.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the move was a “landmark moment”.
“My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account,” Lammy said in a statement.
However, some experts warned the impact was likely to be limited.
Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, she would be “surprised” if the sanctions were the “game changer” to end small boat crossings.
“There are so many people involved in the industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have an impact around the margins,” she told Radio 4’s Today programme.
