Illegal immigrants in custody after raid
Andy Passant
Evening Gazette
Aug 15 2008
FIVE illegal immigrants received an unexpected wake-up call when immigration officers raided a Middlesbrough home.
An eight-strong team of immigration and police officers swooped on a house in Clifton Street at 6.15am yesterday.
Five Indian men, still dressed in their pyjamas, were questioned by officers who checked identity documents.
They discovered that the men, aged between 22 and 52, were illegal immigrants.
The UK Border Agency carried out the raid after receiving intelligence that the men were living there and carrying out building work.
The five men were taken into custody at Middlehaven police station.
Officials established that none of them had the right to work in the UK.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: We will remove these illegal workers from the UK as soon as possible.
Last year we removed someone every eight minutes.
We will not tolerate illegal working and are working hard to pull the plug on the illegal jobs which lure illegal immigrants to come to the UK in the first place.
The latest crackdown in Middlesbrough comes at a time of major changes to the immigration system.
A tough Australian-style points based system for managing immigration was introduced earlier this year, ensuring that only those with the skills required in the UK are allowed to work here.
And a new civil penalty system was also brought in earlier this year to tackle bosses who fail to carry out proper checks on workers. A fine of up to 10,000 can be imposed for every illegal worker found at a business.
Guidance for employers on preventing illegal working can be found on the UK Border Agency website www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/employing migrants or by calling the employers helpline on 0845 010 6677.
