A restaurant in Newton Abbot is facing fines for employing illegal workers, it has been confirmed.
The Eastern Eye was raided by UK immigration officers earlier this month (December 13th) and the immigration statuses of the staff there were checked.
Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that a 20-year-old Bangladeshi chef had entered the UK illegally, while a 25-year-old Bangladeshi waiter had remained in the country illegally following the expiration of his UK visa.
The pair have been transferred to immigration detention pending their removal from Britain, but Eastern Eye is now facing a penalty of up to £10,000 for each worker if they are unable to prove to the authorities that they conducted the required right-to-work checks on the men.
Kenny Chapman, head of the south west local immigration team at the UK Border Agency, commented: “We are out in Devon regularly tracking down illegal workers and the businesses which employ them. We will not tolerate illegal working which undercuts wages and exploits vulnerable staff.
“We do not expect employers to be immigration experts but they must make basic checks on migrant workers before they employ them.”
The government recently announced an online system of biological data that will be made accessible to allow employers to investigate the immigration status of their potential staff quickly and securely.