Indians Among 280 Arrested In UK Amid Crackdown On Illegal Delivery Riders

<p>London, Aug 11 (PTI) The UK authorities have arrested hundreds of people, including Indians, in a week-long crackdown on two-wheeler riders suspected of working illegally for delivery firms across the country.</p>
<p>The UK Home Office revealed this week that its Immigration Enforcement teams had conducted Operation Equalise recently as part of a &ldquo;nationwide intensification week of activity&rdquo; targeting illegal working hotspots with a focus on the migrants working as delivery riders.</p>
<p>Between July 20 and 27, a total of 1,780 individuals were stopped, leading to 280 arrests of migrants and asylum seekers found working without the requisite paperwork, the Home Office said.</p>
<p>During one such raid, officers arrested seven Indian nationals at Hillingdon in west London, with five of them detained for illegal work activity.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Illegal working undermines our border security and we&rsquo;re cracking down hard on it. That&rsquo;s why we have intensified our enforcement activity right across the UK to crack down on those who think they can evade immigration and employment laws in the UK,&rdquo; said Dame Angela Eagle, UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This operation is just one example of our relentless efforts to bear down on organised immigration crime at every level in our communities,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>As a direct result of Operation Equalise, the Home Office said 53 individuals are now having their asylum support reviewed, which could result in their support being suspended or withdrawn. </p>
<p>The operation follows a warning issued by the Home Office last month that those in the food delivery business caught abusing the immigration system could face having their asylum support ceased, such as entitlement to accommodation or payments, and those caught working illegally facing removal from the UK.   </p>
<p>The Home Office said its Immigration Enforcement teams will also receive a GBP 5 million funding boost to ramp up illegal working intensification activity even further.  The cash injection, to be drawn from the GBP 100 million investment for border security announced last week, is earmarked for a &ldquo;major surge&rdquo; in enforcement raids over the coming months.</p>
<p>The aim is for officers to revisit and re-attend illegal working hotspots more frequently and increase enforcement teams’ intelligence gathering capabilities to support frontline enforcement activity.  </p>
<p>&ldquo;We continue to intensify our activity against those who think they can get away with working illegally. My teams have been taking action around the clock, all across the country and I thank them for their hard work, co-operation and skill in dealing with this challenging issue,&rdquo; said Eddy Montgomery, Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime at the UK Home Office. </p>
<p>In addition to the arrests made as part of Operation Equalise, 51 businesses, including car washes, restaurants and retail premises, were issued with Civil Penalty Referral Notices. This could see them face hefty fines if they are found to have employed illegal workers and failed to conduct relevant pre-employment checks.  </p>
<p>The operation was also supported by police forces across the UK, with officers seizing 71 vehicles throughout the week, including 58 e-bikes, as well as GBP 8,000 in cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act and around GBP 460,000 in illicit cigarettes.  It comes as part of a series of measures to tighten the law around illegal migration, including stricter legal requirements for all companies to check that anyone working for them has the legal right to do so through the government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill in Parliament.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em><strong>(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)</strong></em></p>