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Leicester factory raided in Border Agency probe | Leicester factory raided in Border Agency probe |
(about 1 hour later) | |
More than 120 officers have raided a factory unit in Leicester city centre in an operation to crack down on illegal workers. | More than 120 officers have raided a factory unit in Leicester city centre in an operation to crack down on illegal workers. |
Eighty people employed by several textile companies at the former Imperial Typewriters building on East Park Road were questioned. | |
Thirty-two, thought to be from India have been arrested, while the others were released with no further action. | |
The raid, codenamed Operation Serbal, was led by the UK Border Agency. | |
Officers from Leicestershire Police, HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and Trading Standards were also involved. | |
Interpreters used | Interpreters used |
Of those arrested, 26 are men and six are women. They have now been taken to a local police station for further checks and questioning. | |
After the raid, it emerged that the fire service was called after reports some workers were trapped in a lift inside the building. | |
In November, the old Imperial Typewriters factory featured on a Channel 4 Dispatches programme called "Fashion's Dirty Secret", in which an undercover reporter exposed a number of poor working practices. | |
Information gathered as part of the programme played a "significant part" in the way the UKBA gathered its intelligence for the raid, which had been planned for three months. | |
Simon Excell, UKBA deputy director, said: "We've gone in with warrants this morning, secured the premises - there were a lot of individual units within the premises themselves - it's taken us a while to gain access, sometimes we've had to use a method of entry to gain access." | |
The building contains 21 business units, many of which were operating legitimately, stressed the agency. | |
Mr Excell said people from about a dozen units inside the building were questioned, some making use of the 15 interpreters who had accompanied officers on the raid. | |
A number of those attempted to hide when officers went in, while others accepted their presence, he added. |
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