Café employees arrested for UK immigration crimes

08 Apr 2011 | Posted by Carl Thomas

Three workers at a café in London have been arrested for violating UK immigration rules.

Acting on intelligence, UK Border Agency (UKBA) officials visited the Mirabell on Hammersmith Road in West Kensington.

They questioned staff and found that three employees had continued to live and work in the country after the expiration of their UK visas.

A Mongolian man aged 29, a Mongolian woman aged 31 and a 24-year-old Brazilian man were all arrested.

They are currently being detained ahead of their removal from the country for violating the UK immigration rules.

Rebecca Baumgartner, UKBA deputy director for London, commented: "Illegal working is a crime that not only undercuts local businesses but also has a serious impact on communities, taking jobs from those who are genuinely allowed to work.

"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."

She added that it is the legal responsibility of all employers to check the immigration status of their employees to ensure that they have the right to work in the UK.

The Mirabell café could face a fine of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker unless it can prove that it conducted the necessary right-to-work checks before hiring the three.

The news comes in the week that the government has implemented its cap on Tier 2 work permits, limiting the number of skilled workers able to come to the UK to 20,700 a year.