A Home Office immigration enforcement team and Sussex Police officers attended a Vistry house-building site in Bexhill on 12th November, where they detained 17 men of Albanian, Georgian and Indian nationalities deemed to be working illegally.
According to the BBC, a civil penalty referral notice was also issued to the employer, which means a fine of up to 拢60,000 per worker if found to have employed illegal workers.
The report quoted a Home Office spokesperson who said that four of the men had been detained for removal from the UK while the remainder were placed on immigration bail.
The Home Office says there has been a 63% increase in illegal working arrests in the past year in the UK.
Chief immigration officer in the southeast, Harry Taylor, said: "This operation sends a clear signal that we are coming down hard on illegal working and there is no hiding place from the law."
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