At this rate we'll have to rename the UK Borders Agency as something like the Restaurant and Takeaway Service - RATS, could be a hidden meaning in there somewhere - with news that another six illegal workers have been found at restaurants and takeouts in Devon.
This time we're in Sidmouth, as the UKBA carry out simultaneous raids on the Yummy Express and the Jade Wok.
The Yummy Express, Temple Street, yielded three staff members who had no legal right to be in the UK.
One was a failed Chinese asylum seeker, one a Malaysian man whose visa had expired, and the last a Malaysian woman who had entered the UK illegally.
At the Jade Wok, High Street, three Malaysian men who had entered the UK illegally were found.
The Malaysian man from the Yummy Express has been bailed whilst arrangements are made for his removal from the UK, the other five are in immigration detention pending their deportation.
Both businesses now face the prospect of large fines, although this seems to be very little of a deterrent considering the large number of food establishments who seem willing to employ illegal workers.
As we've said at least a dozen times here, raid after raid shows that the takeaway and restaurant industry in the South West have become a magnet for illegal workers.
Hardly a week goes by when we don't see yet more detentions as a result of UKBA raids, and the truth is that UKBA is only catching a fraction of the illegal workers.
With unemployment at unacceptable levels we still see far too many companies willing to take a chance on illegal workers, and every illegal worker employed is a job lost to those who are entitled to work here.
