Home Office pays out £1,000 to Chinese immigrant

The Home Office is to compensate a Chinese immigrant £1,000 which disappeared from her handbag during an immigration raid in London’s Chinatown last year.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, claimed the money had been stolen after being detained by enforcement officers and taken to Yarlswood immigration removal centre.

She alleged that one immigration officer removed the cash, and that others shouted “me, me, me”.

The Home Office’s professional standards unit accepted the money went missing but an inquiry failed to find “the required level of proof” that immigration officers, who denied the allegation, had taken it.

The revelation follows yesterday’s worrying report today from the chief inspector of immigration and borders. John Vine found that the majority of Home Office enforcement searches were not justified and in many cases unlawful.

Protests in Chinatown

Nowhere does this abuse of power seem more evident than London’s Chinatown, which last October staged a mass demonstration against what they say were immigration “fishing” expeditions.

Channel 4 News has been given the details. Last summer 13 Chinese businesses were raided, the vast majority restaurants.

A questionnaire among their owners claimed immigration officers refused to confirm their status in half the raids, they failed to show or serve warrants in three quarters, and of the 39 detained, 75 per cent were released almost immediately.

In October, Chinatown shut down in protest for two hours. Since then they say there’s not been a single raid.

The Home Office insists the Chinatown raids followed lawful and correct procedures.

But Mr Vine’s report appears to suggest many of those Chinatown grievances applied elsewhere. In one case he found immigration had intelligence that was 157 days old to justify a raid.

In another case in Manchester, an operation was planned 142 days before it actually took place.

Mr Vine found that in almost two thirds of sample cases the use of search powers was unjustified.

The report predicts the number of such searches will more than double this year, even if not in Chinatown.

The Home Office told us that it has “already addressed the concerns expressed in the report, but we accept that we need to ensure that this power of entry is always exercised appropriately and consistently across all teams to respond to the threat of illegal working”.

In a statement, a Home Office spokesperson told Channel 4 News: “We expect the highest standards of behaviour from our staff and take allegations of this kind seriously. This matter is currently under investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

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