Inside illegal immigration raids of nail bars and car washes in south east London

Immigration officers have raided a string of businesses across south east London in the latest crackdown on illegal workers.

Metro joined the officers as they circled nail bars and car washes in parts of the city, ensuring that suspects could not flee the scene before bursting into the premises.

Two Chinese women, whose names aren’t known, looked shocked after officers swooped onto the beauty salon while they were polishing women’s nails.

Detectives received a tipoff that Chinese illegal immigrants were working inside the premises before they launched the surprise raid yesterday morning. 

As the officers questioned the women through an interpreter, one of the suspects tried to deflect questions suggesting she was an innocent. The other meanwhile seemed to accept it was ‘a fair cop’. 

During questioning, they both appeared to be anxious and rarely made eye contact with the officials. 

Customers coming in for appointments were turned away and looked confused as the minister and immigration squad occupied the salon. 

One of the officials told Metro that it was not unusual for customers having to leave the shop mid-treatment during these raids.

The women, who did not speak English, were spoken to by a translator and informed that they were being put on ‘immigration bail’. That means they can be prosecuted at a future date after detectives have made further inquiries. 

After extensive questioning about who employed them and their status in the UK they were ordered to leave, grabbing their coats and bags and filing past the officials with their heads bowed. 

Another worker in the salon, who was there as the raid took place, claimed she had no knowledge that the Chinese women were working illegally.

Both of the illegal workers were known to the immigration authorities and were trying to stay in the UK even though they were not permitted to, the immigration officers discovered. 

The owner of business now faces a fine of more than £80,000 for employing them. 

A look inside immigration raids

There has been an 83 per cent rise in those arrested since July 2024 as teams swoop on suspect shops which are often cash only. 

Following the release of the arrest figures on Monday, Home Office minister Mike Tapp joined Metro on the raids on Tuesday.

Mr Tapp told Metro: ‘Raids like this are very important. Far too many are coming here for this type of work. Nail bars, car washes, they are undercutting British workers. 

‘This matters to my constituents and people across the country. It’s important we have control. Us Brits like sticking to the rules and if we see someone jumping the queue we don’t like it.

‘We have made a lot of progress. We are looking to move people out of hotel accommodation into military accommodation. We are attacking it on all fronts.’ 

Later on in the morning, officers also swooped on a car wash which had already been previously fined £30,000 for giving work to an illegal migrant. 

The son of the owner, who was at the car wash when it was raided, told Metro that the illegal worker had shown fake papers when trying to get the job. He added the business was now ‘totally legit.’ 

He said: ‘We made a mistake and have paid for it. They have found no one illegal working here today and they will not again. Now we are very careful and appreciate the immigration officers are just doing their job.’

At the car wash raid, a protester turned up to confront the immigration officers. The protester told two Romanian workers on site that they did not need to answer any questions. 

She told Metro: ‘I’m just telling them they don’t need to answer anything. I’m here to support them.’ 

After a brief interview by officers, they established they were working legally and no action was required. 

The immigration officers raid up to 12 businesses a day following up on tip offs from the public and their own intelligence gathering. 

More than 2,100 arrests were made in London last year, a 47 per cent rise compared with 2024.

Around 17,400 raids were carried out by the Home Office’s immigration enforcement teams on businesses such as nail bars, car washes, barbers and takeaway shops.

This led to more than 12,300 arrests, the highest number of illegal workers and those enabling illegal working since records began in 2019.

Ministers believe the prospect for an immigrant finding work before their application to remain in the UK is decided in is a major ‘pull factor’. 

Sarah Allen, who leads the immigration unit for London, said: ‘We are doing an important job and we do it fairly. Some  people being employed illegally have been exploited themselves by the people who bring them over. We are working hard as the latest arrest figures show.’ 

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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