Activists move to scupper illegal workers crackdown

As raids on illegal workers are launched at hundreds of businesses across the country, campaigners are using leaked government documents to warn those being targeted.
The Anti-Raids Network, which obtained the documents, says the government is pusuing a political agenda and has tipped off workers.
The two-week crackdown is aimed at workplaces – including care homes, hotels and restaurants, construction sites, recruitment agencies and small businesses – that could be employing illegal immigrants.
Those campaigning against the raids say the operation has been launched in the wake of the electoral gains made by Ukip in last month’s council and European elections.
“It is a clear attempt to demonise migrant labour and satisfy the right-wing political agenda on immigration and the EU,” said one campaigner.

Operation Centurion

The raids, known as Operation Centurion, are being carried out by government officials at firms believed to be employing illegal immigrants.
On Tuesday morning, men waiting to be picked up in Ilford, Essex, for cash-in-hand work on construction sites were arrested as part of the operation.
A Home Office document seen by Channel 4 News highlights nationalities in specific industries who are being targeted, with one entry describing Nigerians working illegally in barber shops.
Another talks about laundries employing Eritrean nationals, who are described as “not the best nationalities for us, but a new sector nonetheless”.
There are phone stalls which “appear to have foreign nationals working on them, some of which don’t speak fantastic English”, and there are “nail bars with a Vietnamese connection”.

more: channel4