Home Office warn employers to carry out employee checks
Seven people have been arrested following an early morning Home Office Immigration Enforcement raid in Feltham.
Acting on intelligence, officers visited the Perishable Movements warehouse in Armadale Road at around 2am on Tuesday 25 June, where they carried out immigration checks on members of staff.
Seven Indian men aged between 21 and 29 were arrested for immigration offences. Three were found to be working in breach of their visa conditions, three had over-stayed their visas and one had entered the UK illegally.
All seven are detained pending their removal from the UK.
Their employer will now have to provide proof to the Home Office that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out on all seven staff or they will be fined up to £10,000 per worker for employing them.
Sarah Burton, head of the Home Office’s West London Immigration Enforcement team, said:
“Illegal working fuels illegal immigration to the UK and that is why we are carrying out operations like this.
“If you are a business you must carry out the correct checks on your staff or you could end up with a heavy fine.
“Our enforcement teams carry out operations like this almost every day in west London and those arrested for immigration offences face being detained until they are removed. They also face a ban from returning to the UK.”
Employers unsure of the steps they need to take to avoid employing illegal workers can visit http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/business-sponsors/preventing-illegal-working/or they can call the Employers Helpline on 0300 123 4699.
For more information and contact details for Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams in the South East visit: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/your-region/lse-ice/.
Anyone with information about immigration crime can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
June 29, 2013