AN ARREST has been made after an immigration raid in Herefordshire by Immigration Enforcement.

As part of targeted operations on illegal working, immigration enforcement officers attended Hereford city centre with West Mercia Police officers, to disrupt illegal working by food delivery riders.

The Hereford operation on July 17 resulted in the arrest of one Pakistani man who had breached the rules of his visa by illegally working.

He is now under strict reporting conditions pending travel documents to facilitate his return.

Officers also visited the Tracy & Chloe nail bar, where they arrested one Vietnamese man with no right to work in the UK. 

Officers also visited the Amazing Asia Buffet, where they encountered a Bangladeshi male working without the correct visa.

The operation was continued in Birmingham city centre and Coventry, with officers also targeting illegally modified e-bikes.

The joint Coventry operation resulted in the arrest of two men, one Pakistani and one Indian national, who also breached the conditions of their visas by illegally working.

Both now face removal from the UK, with the Pakistan male in detention and the Indian national under strict reporting conditions.   

Over the two days of action, a further 12 people were arrested for other breaches of the UK’s immigration rules.  

This led to the arrest of four men for working illegally, including one Eritrean and one Guinean national.

Both were failed asylum seekers with no right to work in the UK. They have been placed on strict reporting conditions, pending travel documents being issued to facilitate their removal from the country.  

The two remaining men included an Italian national who had overstayed his visa and an Albanian national who entered the UK illegally.

Both are now in immigration removal centres ahead of removal from the UK. 

This action comes after a commitment made by top delivery firms, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, to implement tougher security measures across their systems.

Following a roundtable chaired by Ministers, the firms agreed to increase the number of facial recognition checks and enhance fraud detection tools, to help ensure only verified account holders can access their platforms.