Post by Focus on Aug 2, 2013 21:04:55 GMT
* Enforcement officers arrest 139 suspected immigration offenders
* Raids carried out in London, Durham, Manchester, Wales and Somerset
* Home Office under fire for live tweeting details of arrests
* Critics liken series of police swoops to sci-fi novel The Hunger Games
* Labour accuses Home Office of targeting 'people of color'
* UKIP leader Nigel Farage warns on-the-spot checks are un-British
* Those who have no right to be in the UK face being thrown out
* Raids are latest Government attempt to detain illegal immigrants
A police operation which led to the arrest of 139 suspected illegal immigrants has sparked a furious political row.
The Home Office defended posting live updates on Twitter as officers targeted employers who take on people with no right to live in Britain as part of an immigration crackdown.
But as the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a probe into police spot checks over allegations that non-white people were being singled out, the political storm grew with UKIP and Labour united in opposition to the targeted operations.
Enforcement : Border force officers take two men they arrested in Brentwood, Essex, yesterday as part of a nationwide visa crackdown
Immigration enforcement officers arrested 139 suspected immigration offenders at locations across the country. Those who have no right to be in the UK face being thrown out.
The move is the latest attempt by the Government to crack down on those illegally in the country, following a controversial advertising van campaign and reports of stop and check operations near London train stations.
But the EHRC said the wave of police raids would be investigated to see if they breached rules on unlawful discrimination.
A Commission spokesman said: 'The Commission is writing today to the Home Office about these reported operations, confirming that it will be examining the powers used and the justification for them, in order to assess whether unlawful discrimination took place.
'The letter will also ask questions about the extent to which the Home Office complied with its public sector equality duty when planning the recent advertising campaign targeted at illegal migration.'
The raids are the latest high profile move against illegal immigrants by the Home Office after launching a series of posters and ad vans to drive around key locations telling foreigners to 'go home'.
Yesterday the Home Office's official Twitter account posted a series of live updates about immigration raids being carried out across the country.
Arrested : This man was dragged away from a nail bar in Swansea yesterday as part of a series of immigration raids across the country
Updates : The Home Office was criticized for its messages giving live information about arrests in immigration raids
The Home Office tweets included news of two arrests in Brentwood and a warning that 'employing illegal workers cheats lawful business & exploits the vulnerable'.
At around 5.45 pm it tweeted a picture of an arrest with the message: 'A suspected visa over-stayer arrested at Swansea nail bar – 94 suspected #immigrationoffenders arrested across UK.'
But 9.30 pm the running total had reached 139, after raids in London, Durham, Manchester, Wales and Somerset.
Controversially it used the hashtag #immigrationoffenders which sparked a furious political response and backlash online, which likened the raids to the sci-fi novel The Hunger Games.
Doreen Lawrence, the respected campaigner for justice who is to become a baroness, claimed the crackdown appeared to be relying on 'racial profiling' when targeting suspects.
Mrs Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, said she was concerned about the tactics being used, and would raise questions about it in a her new role in the House of Lords.
'I'm sure there's illegal immigrants from all countries, but why would you focus that on people of color, and I think racial profiling is coming into it,' she told ITV's Daybreak.
She said that stop-and-search has always been in the forefront of her mind, and she has campaigned on the issue for years.
She had thought that there was a move away from racial profiling, but then there was a report which said black people were seven times more likely to be stopped, and now these latest raids had added to her concerns.
Raid : The Home Office said civil penalty notices of up to £10,000 will be handed to employers suspected of using illegal labour
Labour's shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant voiced doubts about the government's crackdown
Mocking : Comedian David Schneider likened the stop checks to the sci-fi novel The Hunger Games
Chris Bryant, Labour’s shadow immigration minister, said: 'Theresa May said last month it was unacceptable to stop someone simply on the basis of their ethnicity. That too should go for all Home Office enforcement action, not just the police.
'Intelligence-led operations to remove illegal immigrants are to be welcomed. Racial profiling is not.'
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: 'Spot checks and being demanded to show your papers by officialdom are not the British way of doing things.
'Yes, of course we want to deal with illegal immigration, but what’s the point of rounding people up at railway stations if at the same time they’re still flooding in through Dover and the other nearly hundred ports in this country.'
Phil O'Shea, who witnessed one of the stop-and-check operations in north London, told the Kilburn Times: 'They appeared to be stopping and questioning every non-white person, many of whom were clearly ordinary Kensal Green residents going to work.'
Dave Garratt, chief executive of charity Refugee Action, warned that the operations could 'incite racial tensions'.
Comedian David Schneider wrote on Twitter: 'I'm enjoying @ukhomeoffice's tweeting of the preliminary rounds of the UK Hunger Games.'
The raids are the latest attempt by the Government to crack down on those illegally in the country, following a controversial advertising van campaign
But Immigration Minister Mark Harper insisted: 'We’ll continue the work we’re doing. We did some high-profile operations yesterday.
'Day in and day out our immigration officers conduct operations against both those employing illegal immigrants and those who have no right to be in the country.
'We’ll continue to do so and if the equalities and Human Rights Commission wants to look at what we’re doing, of course we’re happy to talk to them.
I’m confident we have robust rules to make sure we’re not discriminating against people under the law. I’m confident we’ll be able to show to the EHRC’s satisfaction that we haven’t been discriminating,' he told Sky News.
Civil penalty notices of up to £10,000 will be handed to employers suspected of using illegal labour.
The Immigration Bill, which will be introduced later this year, will carry proposals to tackle rogue businesses by increasing the amount they will be charged if they are found to be employing illegal workers.
But concerns have been raised about recent anti-immigration operations in London and Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent North has written to Home Secretary Theresa May following reports of spot checks.
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said the government was trying to stamp out illegal working, but Labour MP Barry Gardiner has raised concerns about recent anti-immigration operations in London
The Independent reported that he demanded an investigation into the checks which he said violated 'fundamental freedoms'.
'We do not yet live in a society where the police or any other officers of the law are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers,' Mr Gardiner wrote.
'The actions of your department would however appear to be hastening us in that direction.'
A Home Office spokesman defended the tactics, saying: 'We make no apology for enforcing our immigration laws and our officers carry out hundreds of operations like this every year around London. Where we find people who are in the UK illegally we will seek to remove them.
'Immigration Enforcement officers conducted an operation at Walthamstow Central underground station and hub today, based on intelligence, where they questioned individuals to check if they had the right to be in the UK.
'They arrested 12 people who were in the country illegally. Two further people were arrested in follow-up house searches.'
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said: 'The Home Secretary said that it is unacceptable to stop someone simply on the basis of their ethnicity.
'Theresa May said that someone from an ethnic background was seven times more likely to be stopped than a white person, and she said that this was wrong and we supported her.
'We must now have immediate reassurance from the Home Secretary that this is the case for immigration enforcement too.
With enforcement operations now under the direct control of the Home Office she must establish straight away whether the rules preventing racial profiling are being enforced.
'Intelligence-led operations to remove illegal immigrants are to be welcomed. Racial profiling is not.'
How the fck can apprehending illegal immigrants be labelled 'racist' ffs?? - Just another ruse by 'do-gooder's' to make it a hell of a lot easier for them to remain here in Britain ... well if the thought of them going back to whichever cess pit they landed here illegally from upsets them that much then they need to feel free to fck orrff out of it with them!! - Fx
