Twenty-seven Indians have been arrested in raids over the past two weeks by Britain's immigration authorities for working illegally in the country,and now face deportation. The UK Border Agency said it arrested the illegal residents in two different enforcement operations in London and Manchester and was now working to deport them back. According to an official release,on September 22,the border agency officers visited an Asian supermarket in Southall,West London,to check that the staff had the legal right to work. A total of 25 from the staff,including 23 Indian nationals,were found to have no right to be in the UK and were arrested. "It is the legal responsibility of all businesses to check their employees have the right to work in the UK," a UK Border Agency spokesperson said. "Where we find people who are in the UK illegally,we will seek to remove them. But we also want to send out a strong message to employers. More raids like this are planned," the spokesperson added. In another incident,UK Border Agency officers visited a building site in Manchester on September 16,and arrested 4 Indian men found working illegally in the UK. The supermarket and the agency employing the construction workers now face fines of up to 10,000 pounds for each illegal worker,unless they can prove that they carried out the correct pre-employment checks.
