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Border police swoop on illegal migrants at Olympic site
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor4 Dec 2009
Eighty illegal migrants have been arrested after a crackdown on unlawful working at the London Olympic site.
Half were caught after using fake passports or other false documents to obtain a job. The others were detained for overstaying their visas or working despite being barred from doing so under immigration or asylum rules.
Some of the people held included asylum seekers, who are banned from employment, as well as migrants who had arrived as tourists.
Many of the offenders have already been removed from Britain. The rest are either in custody, awaiting prosecution or facing deportation.
The arrests by the UK Border Agency over the past seven months will fuel the controversy about employment at the Stratford site. They come in the wake of Gordon Brown's pledge to provide “British jobs for British workers”.
Protesters have accused 2012 bosses of using cheap agency workers, often from overseas, in breach of labour agreements. There have been further complaints about the small number of locals gaining work on the £9.3 billion project.
The arrests will also raise questions about the number of illegal workers elsewhere in Britain and whether similarly robust monitoring is carried out by other employers. The UK Border Agency and the Olympic Delivery Authority said the detections were a tribute to the rigorous checks conducted on workers at the 2012 site.
Details of the illegal workers are contained in figures issued by the agency.
They state that between April and late November a total of 84 people either working or seeking employment at the Olympic site were arrested for immigration offences, with half also detained for using false documents.
The largest number were from India, whose nationals accounted for 32 of the total. There were 12 Nigerians, seven Ukrainians, four Brazilians, four Kosovans, three Moldovans, and two each from Sierra Leone, Albania and Zimbabwe. The remainder were described as “others”.
Officials found workers using the genuine passports of others which were either stolen or borrowed. Some were caught with fake UK visas or had substituted pages in their passports. Illegal workers had also switched the photograph in another person's passport.
Announcing the enforcement action, Tony Smith, the UK Border Agency's Olympics director, said: “The UK Border Agency has officers based permanently at the Olympic site to check the identity of people seeking work and to help ensure the Games are delivered on time, with a workforce legally entitled to be there. A spokesman for the ODA added: “These figures demonstrate our efforts to ensure people working on site are legally entitled to do so.”
In addition to the illegal migrants, eight others who were entitled to work in the UK were arrested for using false documents to obtain work. Three were Britons, including a journalist who was seeking, unsuccessfully, to expose lax security. When added to statistics for enforcement action in previous years, which show around 130 arrests, today's figures take the total of illegal migrants detected at the site to more than 200.
Reader views (53)
There are two issues here. One is the lax and turn a blind eye to illegal immigrants over a number of years by the labour government.The other is the way that the welfare system has developed often making it easier for people to scrounge benefits again supported and maintained by a labour government for many years.
The idea that immigrants work any harder than locals is a myth only because labour have made created an underclass in our society that only know how to exploit the benefits so what is the incentive for them to get out of bed in the mornings?
Suffice to say that the Olympics is just a complete sham already over budget but this is kept hidden from us.
- James Town, Braintree UK, 04/12/2009 16:15
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My elderly father was forced of a bus in Glasgow last week because the driver couldn,t read or recognise his (legitimate} bus pass.It transpired that his grasp of English was very poor and he caused uproar on the bus with his aggressive stance.Lets try and keep the jobs for people that live here its now getting ridiculous especially with high unemployment!!!
- Tony, Essex, 04/12/2009 16:08
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Reading this forum, I concur with those that argue that those who have entered or remained in the UK illegally, should not be allowed to work here and should be removed to their home country through legal due process and in humane conditions.
I agree also with the points that people make about migrant workers often doing low paid jobs that British citizens decline to do. If, however, we continue to bring in significant waves of migration every generation when a minority of the British population opt for a life of welfare instead of low paid work we will have ever greater problems of overpopulation. London is already very, very overcrowded - unless you have extreme wealth to by-pass the problem.
- Danny, London, 04/12/2009 16:06
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If the issue is wages being undercut don't blame immigrants, blame the companies that won't pay a proper wage. All the while we fight amongst ourselves these companies are laughing.
- Nolan, Londonist, 04/12/2009 15:35
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Tt of Luton wrote: "My god it depresses me reading the hateful comments on this website. It's like a BNP forum".
Actually, please note two things:
1/ It depresses ME to have my hometown, London, turned into an alien city.
2/ I reserve my "hate" for the government that allowed this situation to come about.
- Croyboy, Croydon, 04/12/2009 15:35
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Every other day this week, immigrants are criticised as "scroungers" who only come to the UK for benefit payments. Today they are being criticised for working!
- Nolan, Londonist
Nolan - they are not being criticised for working but for working Illegally and sometimes being in the country illegally!!!
- Caroline, London, UK, 04/12/2009 15:32
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To the weirdos posting in support of these criminals I would say perhaps one day you will have your passport and identity stolen and cloned and then you will think of these people in the way the rather more realistic of us do.
- D Woodstock, London, 04/12/2009 15:18
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That just leaves about 2,000,000 others. Phil Jones
Sorry Phil, it's more like 5,000,000+ others at least!
- Stevgillamos, Romford, 04/12/2009 15:04
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It's quite obvious to me that the rest of the world gave the Olympics to us because they foresaw the huge global recession.
- Vanessa M, Twickenham, England, 04/12/2009 15:00
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Rejinald you can't have it both ways! There are big communities of migrants all over Britain who have settled in this country. Then you get the 1st/2nd/3rd generation who would never deign to do the menial or low skill jobs their parents did. Even when out of work! Proportionally, numbers of them are on benefits just like there are host British. Is your answer that we keep opening up our borders so that fresh migrants can, as it were, do the dirty jobs for migrants already here - in perpetuity?
- Steven, Acton, 04/12/2009 14:56
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They should also raid the Home Office, most (probably all acttually) London Councils and the NHS - they would probably find thousands - with the result that local and central Gov would grind to a halt.
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties, 04/12/2009 14:36
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Bj, East London
Likewise, there are a lot of shoddy foreign workers too! You cannot tar everyone with the same brush!
- Jm, Essex, Essex, UK, 04/12/2009 14:33
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Very worrying given the security implications. Is it too late to hand back the Games deal and let Paris have all the hassle, expense and danger?
- Natasha, Woodford, Essex, 04/12/2009 14:24
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Stephen, London is right. Using immigrants to fill work spaces is holding back British workers pay and conditions. That's why the government pinched the nurses from places like the Philippines. It was cheaper to grab their talent rather than to improve pay and conditions to attract the indigenous population into the job. A bus firm I once worked for employed drivers from France and Portugal rather than provide a decent wage...Now alot of them are East European. Not illegal, but still holding back pay & conditions for the British workers with ever bigger bills to pay...Especially, I think after the next election.
- Rodders, Feltham SWTLand, 04/12/2009 14:10
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Mark H, London England
Come on, show me those that work those hours?
You go to any city centre on a Friday or Saturday night, that is where you will find our youth. Spending their hard earned benefits. Then deciding to mouth their obsenities.
These people may be living together to sav eenought o hopefully buy a house and not get a council flat.
This country has created its own problems.
- Reginald, Islington, 04/12/2009 14:03
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How long before Jack Straw releases them?
- Chuck Unsworth, London, 04/12/2009 14:00
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"People, what you must understand is that these people are willing to go out in the freezing cold and work. Yes, that word called WORK. They dont agree with having kids at the age of 15 and then living off benefits off the govenrment."
- Rejinald, Islington
Written as though the majority of British people do not work and work hard, which is certainly not true. I get sick of reading idiotic comments like this and as they are always stated anonymously can only imagine that it is pure lies peddled by immigrants and/or left-wing loonies. Benefit scroungers are a MINORITY. Too large a minority, it's true, but still a minority. Besides which, the fact is that these workers have broken numerous laws so what other criminal activity might they choose to indulge in? The law is the law so get rid!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 04/12/2009 13:41
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My god it depresses me reading the hateful comments on this website. It's like a BNP forum.
- Tt, Luton, 04/12/2009 13:40
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'British jobs for British people'. Another Gordon McBruun broken promise.
- John Bull, London, 04/12/2009 13:38
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Great, we need more high profile arrests like this to get the message out that illegal entry into the UK is not a viable option. We have a huge pool of workers from the UK and the rest of Europe who can enter legally and they HAVE to take priority. It has nothing to do with racism it's just common sense. Next step make everyone work at least part-time for benefits. Everyone complaining about illegal immigration should make sure they report anyone they know illegally claiming/working, we all need to help solve this mess.
- Dave, London, 04/12/2009 13:29
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British jobs for British workers translated means, shoddy workmanship, lots of strikes and late finishing.
- Bj, East London, 04/12/2009 13:25
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"People, what you must understand is that these people are willing to go out in the freezing cold and work. Yes, that word called WORK. They dont agree with having kids at the age of 15 and then living off benefits off the govenrment."
- Rejinald, Islington
They're also prepared to work all the hours in the day for very little money effectively pricing the rest of us out a job especially when we have mortages and rent to pay plus families to support,we're not the ones living 10 to a room and then sending our wages back to home to another country where it's actually worth something.
- Stephen, London, 04/12/2009 13:08
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Rejinald, Islington:
"Yes, that word called WORK. They dont agree with having kids at the age of 15 and then living off benefits off the govenrment"
Come on Rejinald, that sort of thing may be prevalent in the area where you live, but I know plenty of young families that don't ponce off the state. The fathers, and sometimes the mothers, work 10 to 12 hour days to make ends meet. The funny thing is these young people are white working class, the type that everyone seems to think are just sitting at home watching daytime T.V while immigrants come in and work to pay for their benefits.
- Mark H, London England, 04/12/2009 13:05
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And the name "Baroness Scotland" is not even mentioned.
- Aylyn, Orihuela Costa,, 04/12/2009 12:53
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Not only is Lord Coe’s circus an obscene drain on our national resources, but the building of the temples to the God of Sport is obviously a magnet for foreign labour too.
Still, maybe Gordon will offer an election pledge of "British Golds for British Olympians", so it’ll all be worth it in the end.
- Darius, London UK, 04/12/2009 12:51
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No mention made of the employers AND agencies being fined, why not? £10 000 for first offence to both, then £20 000 next time, £40 000 after that, then close the companies down for good and throw the hirers into jail.
That should concentrate minds wonderfully AND easily pay the wages of the BA staff: yes, they SHOULD hire more, even if only temporarily, or is the BA too stupid to think of this itself? Obviously not, otherwise we would see a lot more caught.
- Ralph, London, 04/12/2009 12:46
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News like this will only bolster the BNP, sad but true.
Its time the authorities got their act together, and deal with this problem for once and all.
- Malc, London,England, 04/12/2009 12:40
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Does this mean the employers will be fined £800,000
at £10,000 per worker
- R Smith, LONDON, 04/12/2009 12:20
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Why is anyone surprised, it seems to me the people at the top of the tree get more and more consultancies, set up agencies, whilst enjoying staggering high salaries and no doubt if you dig deep enough, some familiar faces or at least names will be there.
So who was watching the gates, the security, where the contract for those workers is being paid into, and who suddenly discovered not eight, but eighty people working on a site where, just like the Grand Hotel in Brighton, may well have had some explosives or chemicals hidden behind bath panels, beneath stairs etc. Who knows?
Too many at the top are watching their percentages instead of doing what they are highly paid to do. Just wait and see who fill up all the prime seats at the most popular and expensive games, just like The Dome & Wembley.
Those eighty people clearly are putting the word around it is easy to get in, get well paid and get out. How?
- Ken.H, Harrow. UK, 04/12/2009 12:17
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People, what you must understand is that these people are willing to go out in the freezing cold and work. Yes, that word called WORK. They dont agree with having kids at the age of 15 and then living off benefits off the govenrment.
Oh and also dont believe in robbing and stabbing the youth of this country.
Strong words, but please think of the overall problem with life in the UK.
- Rejinald, Islington, 04/12/2009 11:58
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I do believe that there is a £10,000 fine per illegal worker to be paid by the company found to be in breach of employment law(government approved contractor) .That means there is a grand to total of £800,000 to be paid by the firms in question to whoever prosecutes the case AND GUESS WHO PAYS THE FINE yes you guessed it , YOU AND ME , the "Great" British public(you know the ones with mug satmped on our forehead).
The govenment has by design rendered the british worker obsolete. It is a well known fact amongst londoners and indeed beyond that very few british/english/scots/irish workers are employed working on the olympic project.
so much for british jobs for british workers.
It is time for english/irish/scots and welsh workers to unite and stop the destruction of our once great workforce for the sake of our children and our childrens children.
MR (DO THEY THINK US STUPID) PASTRY
- Mr Pastry, london, 04/12/2009 11:57
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The company's and the managers who employ them should be find 100,000 per person, more than 10 person per company they lose the contract,this could be written into the contract, (Cheep Labour, that why GB does nothing) the truck drivers get it at Dover this way, why don't the managers of these company's?
- Fred, London, 04/12/2009 11:56
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So under the rules how many of the employers have been arrested for employing illegal workers?
- Andy, london, 04/12/2009 11:50
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nice legacy. Local workers and local people being stitched up.
What an absolute disgrace, but are we surprised?!
- Darren, london, 04/12/2009 11:34
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That's eighty jobs that could easily be filled in todays climate.You have to ask yourself that on such a flagship government project how this should happen, it is also very worrying considering the security implications at the site.Some heads should roll.
- Tony, Essex, 04/12/2009 11:32
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Well that's got to be the best news so far re London hosting the Olympics .........
- Marianne, SW France/London, 04/12/2009 11:29
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uk worlds recycle bin
- Peter Woods, Torre Chianca, Italy, 04/12/2009 11:21
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'Tip of the iceberg' is spot-on. -It's already bad enough being swamped by 'legal' immigrants, but now these 'illegals' appear to be able to give the Border Agency the runaround. -Once again, we're made to look complete fools due to the incompetence of those in authority, who always seem only capable of picking on the 'easy' targets and throwing them out, while failing to spot the worst offenders!
- Huggy, Cumbernauld Scotland, 04/12/2009 11:15
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Were these jobs allocated via the job centres? If job centres are giving jobs to "illegals" then this is very serious. Also if these "illegals" are working via agencies then action must be taken against these agencies. How do "illegals" get national insurance cards? There must be a check up on this.How many were being paid less than the minimum wage? Remember some of these "agencies" deduct items like transport, work boots, overalls etc from wages before they are paid. I recall when the motorway swept through East London in the 1980s Irish workers employed through agencies sleeping 6 to 8 to a room which was deducted by these agencies from their wages.
- Jim, London, 04/12/2009 11:15
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Last year there were attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. It came out that a big percentage of these students become overstayers like here and fail to return to their homeland. Those there on fake student visas then put burdens on the locals taking up the unskilled jobs.
With several Indian and Pakistan gangs this year jailed for selling student visas and fake British national papers to "tens of thousands" as the judge summed up, allowing prolific numbers of illegals to remain in Britain is turning people against migrants. At a time when jobs are becoming scarcer and benefits being withdrawn, we certainly don't want to be following Australia with attacks on migrants.
The greed of politicians and business's have allowed a lax, open door policy which has let in illegal economic migrants in unprecedented numbers. It has changed our social landscape. Security is put at risk as terrorists make use of our open door policy, as well as increased foreign criminals who operate unafraid on our streets. Not only do the indigenous suffer the consequences of a rapid illegal migratory mass in terms of xenophobia being stoked up. Settled migrants worry about their children's future in the aftermath of irresponsible migration policies which have brought vote banks to this here to govern at all costs government.
- Richard, London, 04/12/2009 11:04
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Of course, we can all be assured that the structures they've helped build are safe..
- John Bull, Londonistan, UK, 04/12/2009 11:01
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Did they qualify for the "local workers" bonus scheme?
- Bob, Cheam, 04/12/2009 10:58
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Lizzie u are so right I live on top of the site and do not know one local persom who works there,If you walk by the site you do not here one English voice only Eastern Europeans
- Micky, London Bow, 04/12/2009 10:55
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The real problem are the construction companies (and many more in other trades) who have no problem with employing illegals. They are extremely cheap, there's no paperwork, no tax, no records to keep, they can be fired at the drop of a hat, and they work all hours and do a decent job. Perfect employees in other words, and well worth the risk of any heavy fine the company may incur if they get found out. "Oops, we never knew they were illegal, we thought they'd provided sufficient evidence, sorry, it wont happen again" - same old story.
So long as British bosses are more than happy to take on workers who actually have no right to be here, the problem will continue.
So these illegals - who ultimately only wish to better their situation - will get deported but will the construction companies get any more than a fine ? Heaven forbid they should lose their lucrative contracts at the Olympic site when there's a completion deadline to be met.
- Richard, London UK, 04/12/2009 10:55
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"The remainder were described as “others”." - like what, Martians?
Hopefully all of those people caught will be put on a plane to their native lands. However, I suspect that a few claims of asylum will arise, the handwringers will champion their cause, resulting in the provision of a nice house and life on benefits.
- Jock, Ardmair, Scotland, 04/12/2009 10:48
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And will they be deported, No !
Will they be claiming all sorts of benefits , Yes.
Will their families arrive by the boatload, Yes.
It was clear from day one of the Olympics that only those people temporarily housed in the Olympic catchment area would be employed, despite the usual Government diatribe.
My guess is that with a measure of investigative journalism we will see very few workers from Britain on that site and find a sorry tale of British people suddenly taking their leave as protectionism takes hold by those who are not from the UK.
- Jenny, Croydon, 04/12/2009 10:40
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Every other day this week, immigrants are criticised as "scroungers" who only come to the UK for benefit payments. Today they are being criticised for working!
- Nolan, Londonist, 04/12/2009 10:27
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That just leaves about 2,000,000 others.
- Phil Jones, London EU, 04/12/2009 10:03
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The UK Border Agency and the Olympic Delivery Authority said the detections were a tribute to the rigorous checks conducted on workers at the 2012 site. HOW strange, as a rule the only thing robust and rigorous carried out by these two agencies is the strength of their excuses when things go wrong.
- Alan, carlisle uk, 04/12/2009 09:56
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British jobs for British workers. Hysterical.
- Jonny, London, 04/12/2009 09:51
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By all accounts, the eastern europeans have got the olympic jobs sewn up. British workers dont and wont get a look in
- Lizzie, London, 04/12/2009 09:48
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Oh what a surprise? What do immigration officers do (not do) to let these people in in the first place. Perhaps the illegals should be given the job to safeguard their choice of habitat in GB I am sure they could track the offenders down more successfully.
- Anon, uk, 04/12/2009 09:39
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The words tip and iceberg spring to mind...........
- Andy Woodhead, London, ENGLAND, 04/12/2009 09:33
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