UK to deport 60 delivery riders after illegal work crackdown
The government has announced that 60 takeaway drivers found to be working illegally in the UK will be deported.
The Home Office said the group was among 171 cyclists arrested over seven days in November in a national “enforcement blitz” in villages, towns and cities across the country.
This comes as Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood targets people working illegally in the “gig economy”.
Border Security Minister Alex Norris also met with representatives of food delivery companies and encouraged them to do more to combat the problem; such as using facial recognition checks to prevent travelers from sharing their identities with people who do not have permission to start working in the UK.
Norris said November’s action “should send a clear message: If you are working in this country illegally, you will be arrested and removed.”
He added: “We are tightening the law to restrict illegal working in the distribution sector to root out this criminality from our communities.”
The Home Office highlighted the arrests of two Chinese nationals at a restaurant in Solihull, four Bangladeshi and Indian drivers in Newham, east London, and three Indian drivers in Norwich. It was stated that seven of them were “detained for release”.
Asylum seekers are generally not allowed to work in paid employment during their first 12 months in the UK or until their asylum application is approved.
But earlier this year, the Sun newspaper reported that Channel expats were able to rent accounts from legitimate delivery firm employees through social media groups.
The government said at the time that “illegal account sharing” facilitated illegal work.
The Home Office said it had recently shared the locations of asylum hotels with food delivery companies so they could “monitor hotspots for illegal work”.
Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats say they are increasing random facial checks to ensure passengers match their account names.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs added in a statement that it made 8,000 arrests for illegal work last year; a 63% increase over the previous 12 months.
Although asylum seekers cannot work in the UK for their first 12 months in the country, they are allowed to volunteer.
In September, Mahmood suggested that volunteering should be made compulsory in order to grant them permanent settlement status.
But more than 300 charities wrote: open letter He told the Home Secretary last month that they would not comply with these proposals, describing the move as “abuse”.
