Delivery riders caught working illegally across Britain face
being removed following a major operation by the Home Office's
Immigration Enforcement teams.
During just seven days of action last month, 171 riders were
arrested. Of those, 60 were detained for removal from the UK.
The operation saw Immigration Enforcement officers stop delivery
riders operating in villages, towns and cities right across the
country. Those found to be working illegally were arrested on the
spot.
The results follow government revealing that in the last year,
enforcement action to disrupt illegal working across all sectors
reached record breaking levels, with over 11,000 visits and 8,000
arrests – a 51% and 63% rise respectively.
On top of this, nearly 50,000 people with no right to be here
have been removed since July 2024 and people smuggling arrests,
convictions and seizures have increased by 33% in the past 12
months.
Last week, Border Security Minister met with Deliveroo, Just Eat
and Uber Eats to discuss work they are already carrying out to
tackle illegal working on their platforms and how they can go
further.
This includes the firms' continued work to ramp up
randomised facial recognition checks to tackle illicit
account sharing and receiving the location of asylum hotels
to monitor for illegal working hotspots.
The activity forms part of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's
sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in Britain. This
includes increasing removals and deportations and making it less
attractive for illegal migrants to come to the UK.
Border Security Minister said:
These results should send a clear message: if you are working
illegally in this country, you will be arrested and removed.
As well as delivering record levels of enforcement, we are
tightening the law to clamp down on illegal working in the
delivery sector to root out this criminality from our
communities.
This action is part of the most sweeping changes to illegal
migration in modern times to reduce the incentives that draw
illegal migrations here and scale up removals.
On Tuesday this week, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration
Bill received Royal Assent. This will see the introduction of new
laws to expand right to work checks to the gig economy, including
on delivery riders.
The legislation will close existing loopholes so there will be no
hiding place for illegal workers to flout the rules in gig,
casual, subcontracted or temporary worker roles. Bosses who fail
to conduct these checks could be jailed for up to 5 years, face
fines of £60,000 per illegal worker and have their businesses
closed.
During Operation Equalize, officers made arrests right across the
UK.
On 15 November, officers attended The Jade Wok restaurant in
Solihull. Two people of Chinese nationality were arrested for
illegal working. Both were detained for removal from the UK.
On 17 November, officers deployed to the High Street in Newham.
Four riders of Bangladeshi and Indian nationality were arrested
for illegal working. All four were detained for removal.
And on 25 November, officers attended Norwich City Centre where
they conducted a crime reduction operation. Three riders of
Indian nationality were arrested with two detained for removal.
The third individual was placed on strict immigration bail.
Criminals are using dodgy shops on high streets to hide serious
crimes, from money laundering to illegal working. They are
undercutting honest business owners and must be stopped.
That's why the government is relentlessly pursuing these
criminals and their dirty money and has recovered £300 million in
criminal assets in the past year. Communities are also being
backed with new powers to block some unwanted shops and giving
them a greater say over what's in their high streets.
