Twenty five people have been detained by the UKBA officials after a swoop on an Asian supermarket revealed an army of illegal workers.
Officers attending the Quality Foods Supermarket in Southall discovered that 25 of those working there had no right to be working in the UK. Perhaps there was a 3 for the price of 2 deal on them.
23 Indians, a Ghanaian, and a Pakistani, made up the haul of the illegal workers, three of whom were female.
Of those detained, 15 were working in breach of immigration conditions, 6 had entered the UK illegally, and 4 had overstayed their visas.
The owners of the supermarket were handed a penalty notice, and could face fines of up to £10,000 per illegal worker - which really seems to be little of a deterrent to many businesses, if it were then there would not be a huge underground black market in illegal labour.
"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" said Jennifer, head of the UKBA Ealing immigration team.
Sadly, it's obvious that all these raids and threats of fines are not sending out a strong message at all.
Many employers still seem willing to chance it, and even if they are fined it appears many just never pay up - according to Immigration Minister Damian Greene in March of this year, just £10.7million had been collected from £53.1million of fines imposed since 2008.
Whilst fines remain a civil penalty which are seldom enforced, illegal workers will continue to occupy jobs which Britain sorely needs, many unscrupulous employers perceive the risk and penalties as being outweighed by the potential reward.
We do need to send a strong message to employers - and it is clear that we are failing to do that.
The message needs to be stronger, else illegal workers will continue to be employed, it is evident that the current system the deterrent is not sufficient.
A Britain already short on jobs, and workers suffering from the intolerable competition imposed in the jobs market by mass immigration and the free movement of labour, will continue to lose valuable vacancies to the people who, even under our lax system, have no right to be working here.
Twenty five people have been detained by the UKBA officials after a swoop on an Asian supermarket revealed an army of illegal workers.
