Three men have been arrested for breaching UK immigration laws in the Devon and Cornwall area.
Officers from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) received intelligence regarding the employees of the Balti Garden restaurant in Torquay. After visiting the premises on September 8th, they discovered a waiter from Bangladesh working illegally after breaching the terms of his visitor UK visa.
The law enforcement team than went to Paignton, where they discovered a Chinese man who had entered the country illegally. Finally, a third Chinese man was detained at a residential address in the same town for breaching UK immigration law.
Kenny Chapman, head of the UKBA's local immigration team for the South West, commented: “If people want to live or work in the UK, there are ways they can come here legitimately. But if they break the law we will find them and look to remove them from the country.
“We also want to send out a strong message to employers. It is the legal responsibility of all businesses to check their staff have the right to work in the UK. Anyone who fails to make these checks could get hit with a big fine.”
The Bali Gardens restaurant now faces a civil penalty fine of up to £10,000 for employing the Bangladeshi worker illegally. This can be avoided if the business is able to prove that the correct right-to-work checks were conducted before they employed the man.
Meanwhile, two of the men remain in detention while steps are taken to remove them from the country, while one of the Chinese men has been placed on immigration bail while an outstanding claim is considered.