I was recently surprised to read that the UK Border Agency has carried out a series of raids on UK establishments that hire illegals. Earlier in May this year, a Chinese restaurant in Colchester was fined £ 96,000 the biggest ever handed down by a court in Britain for employing illegal workers from Malaysia, China and Indonesia.
The raid by the UK Border Agency and Police authorities follows similar raids on establishments in other parts of the country. A spokesman for the UK Border Agency confirmed that three people were arrested in the raids on suspicion of being illegal immigrants. The owners of the restaurants face a potential £10,000 fine for each illegal worker found.
In her statement Gail Adams, the UK Border Agency regional director for the Midlands and East of England, said the record fine sent a clear message that both the agency and the court would not tolerate hiring of illegal workers.
Whilst I agree that UK employers will now need to be more diligent in reviewing the paperwork of their immigrant employees, and if there are any doubts they can get additional information from UK Border Agency. It remains to be seen how effective such measures can be when you need the employers to also act as verifiers creating an additional burden on them
Tags: Fines, Points Based, Tier 1, Tier 2 visas, UK employers, working in the UK
