Following the receipt of intelligence, UK immigration officers have conducted a series of raids in Manchester and discovered a total of eight illegal workers.
The employees, who were all in gainful employment without the required UK work permits, were from Pakistan, Mongolia and China and were found at two branches of the Rice Flamebar and Grill earlier this week (Thursday, 20th October).
Arrests were made after the workers were all shown to have no rights to work in this country. Six of the individuals have since been placed in UK immigration detention centres awaiting their removal from Britain, while the remaining two are on immigration bail but will also eventually be removed from the country.
Eddy Montgomery, operations director for the north west region at the UK Border Agency, noted that further operations are planned to tackle immigration crime in the Manchester area.
“Illegal working has a serious impact on communities, taking jobs from those who are genuinely allowed to work,” he added.
“Businesses which operate outside the law should be warned that they will be found and they will be punished.”
The maximum fine for employing an illegal worker is £10,000, which leaves the Manchester chain open to a possible fine of £80,000 if it is unable to provide evidence that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out at the time of employment.