Everyone who applies for a job should be required to produce their birth certificate or passport as part of a tough new plan to ''flush out'' illegal immigrants, the Government said yesterday.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne announced proposals for a new system of civil penalties for firms which employ illegal workers, suggesting they should be fined up to £10,000 to cover the cost of deporting someone from Britain.

Mr Byrne said: ''What we are proposing here will, I think, flush illegal migrants out. We are trying to create a much more hostile environment in this country if you are here illegally.

''We have to make Britain much less of an attractive place if you are going to come here and break the rules.''

Employers could be told to treat all job applicants in the same way to avoid being accused of racial discrimination, meaning that everyone who applies for a job will have to produce official papers proving their nationality and their right to work in the UK.

The Home Office is to set up a network of 1,200 so-called compliance officers to carry out checks on firms at a cost of between £10m and £20m

A telephone helpline for employers to get advice will also be piloted later this year.

The consultation paper is open until August 7, but the minister admitted some businesses were bound to oppose such a tough fines structure.

He accepted that some would regard it as ''going too far'' to require companies to fund the total cost of removing an illegal worker from the country.

But Mr Byrne said: ''It's not acceptable any more to break the rules and turn a blind eye.''