Agency shows immigration success in Devon and Cornwall

Nearly 200 immigration offenders have been removed from the UK in 2011 after they were found living or working illegally in Cornwall and Devon.

The UK Border Agency it was tracking down illegal workers at a rate of more than five a week in the two counties.

The work was carried out by the Immigration Team in Plymouth in raids on businesses and homes.

Business in the two counties paid a total of £434,000 in fines for employing illegal workers.

'Cracking down'

In Cornwall officers found five illegal Chinese workers at restaurants near St Austell and six illegal Bangladeshi staff at restaurants in Newquay and Callington.

Two shop workers were sent back to Pakistan after being round in a Bodmin convenience store.

In Devon seven illegal workers were caught by the UK Border Agency in raids on a care home, shop and restaurant in Torbay on 7 April.

At a care home in Torquay, two women and a man from the Philippines were found working illegally.

A raid on a flat in Plymouth saw six Indian immigration offenders being arrested.

In Cullompton eight men - seven from India and one from Brazil - were arrested for working illegally. The men were found in seven caravans on site.

Jane Farleigh, Regional Director for the UK Border Agency in Wales and the South West, said: "The number of successful operations, offenders removed and penalties issued to employers shows we are cracking down in Devon and Cornwall.

"We are out every week targeting illegal workers and other immigration offenders."