EXCLUSIVE:NOTW delivers 66 on-the-run foreigners to Home Office.. to show how easy it is
By Mazher Mahmood
THE News of the World has given bungling Home Office officials a lesson in catching illegal immigrants.
They say they haven't a clue how many are in Britain. And they can't find hundreds who've gone on the run.
But within a few hours we managed to round up TWO BUSLOADS of them.
We drove them to an immigration detention centre with the message: Try not to lose them this time.
We delivered 70 in all—49 on a luxury coach and 21 crammed into a minibus. It would have been MORE if the coach driver hadn't chucked 20 off for safety reasons.
Last night a red-faced Home Office spokesman spluttered: "We are grateful to the News of the World for its work to bring these cases to light. Tackling illegal working is a top priority."
It took our undercover reporters less than two days to track down almost 100 illegals in London. All they had to do was put the word round they were seeking cheap labourers.
BUSLOAD No1 came from the East End. A regular at the White Hart pub in Green Lane put our reporters on to an illegal worker called Manjit Singh.
He told us: "If you want cheap labourers, you can get hundreds.
"The only thing is they're all illegal and don't have any paperwork. You have a lot of skilled Eastern European workers.
Clowns
"But if you want a gang of grafters then I'd suggest Indian boys. They'll work a whole day for £40.
"The Home Office are clowns. They can't track us down and nowhere we have worked has ever been raided. We are safe."
Manjit, in his 30s, told how he'd paid £9,000 to be smuggled to Britain on a fake visa from Jullundar in India. He has been living and working in London illegally for three years.
He took us to nearby Rosebery Avenue, East Ham, where scores of illegal workers live. Inside a terraced house next to a Sikh temple turban-headed Makhan Singh asked: "How many people do you need? We'll get as many as you want.
"We've got 12 living in here and we all do building work, but we don't work on the books. There are more of us living over the road."
There were two single beds in the cramped, foul-smelling front room with another mattress thrown on the floor. Washing was hung over the open door.
Within minutes nearly 20 people crammed into the room, all seeking work. They openly admitted being illegal immigrants. Meanwhile Manjit used his mobile to line up more.
Our investigators moved on to a makeshift employment agency in the back yard of an off-licence in Plashett Road, east London.
There Bhola Singh promised: "I can get you a hundred people by clicking my fingers. None of them have any papers. It's cheap labour."
True to his word, 40 men filed in the next day to sign up for work.
Yesterday at 9.30 am, our luxury 53-seater coach pulled up outside the Ruskin Arms pub in East Ham. Scores of workers, some clutching lunchboxes, piled on board.
At one point they were sitting on each other's laps! When our law-abiding driver threw some off they begged to be let back on.
BUSLOAD No2 came from Southall, west London, where hordes of illegals converge in the Northwood Road car park every morning from 6am.
They are picked up by a fleet of minibuses and paid from £30 a day to work on building sites.
Our investigators approached a man with a green turban called Nishan Singh, who came to Britain a year ago on a fake visa.
Swooped
He said: "How many days work do you have and how many people do you need? There's a ring of us. I can get them easily. No one has any papers, brother."
He handed over his phone number and said that he would turn up with 20 people.
Yesterday when our minibus arrived outside a Sikh temple in Southall there were many more than we'd allowed for. Twenty-one of them squeezed aboard.
Somewhat to the surprise of all the illegals, BOTH buses headed straight to the Colnbrook Immigration Detention Centre near Heathrow where 25 uniformed police officers stood in wait.
The convoy was ordered into a secure compound where 35 immigration officers swooped.
Each illegal was searched and placed in detention. All mobiles were confiscated.
One passenger said in Punjabi: "Don't worry, lads, I know we're f****d but stay calm. Say nothing."
Last night a Home Office spokesman confirmed that of the 70 we delivered, 66 people had been arrested and detained. Among them were EIGHT failed asylum seekers already sought by immigration.
Our investigation will heap even more shame on the government. Home Secretary John Reid admits he has no idea how many illegal immigrants are in Britain. The Home Office's own figures claim there are between 310,000 and 570,000, believed to be a huge underestimate.
Our Investigations Editor Mazher Mahmood is famous as the Fake Sheik. Now, after his On The Buses coup. he'll also be known as the Fake Blakey...
27 comments:
It is alright to round up the 'illegals'who were ready to earn a living by doing jobs lazy 'legals' wont do , we are all human after all. ..... what else is racism?
What a sick prank. Is there any chance they paid any heed to whether or not these people were illegal or not? Did they check their papers? or did they just round em up like sheep because they don't sound right?
It would be really nice to think that maybe all these men's wives would have known that they were not coming home...more likely families and friends waited, sick with worry, dinner in the oven, praying for their loved ones to return home....Where is the crime in trying to earn just enough to provide for yourself? There are many Brits who commit crime every day by claiming money from the government when they themselves should and could be going out and working to pay their own way.
How would the racist journalist, living in his comfortable middleclass housing with his high paid job, feel if he was suddenly pushed into the situation these people are in? How would he feel having to line up in the hope of work everyday, praying that he will not be caught and detained? This is a case of institutional racism. Do the readers of this sick paper not see that the 'illegals' were caught using an illegal action of entrapment? The Home office should not have even taken the workers.
This incident clearly shows the attitude of NOTW towards the working class.
you think you are good, you think you have done a good job, i am immigrant myself my country was ten times better and nicer than your country, my people live four seasons in my country i was forced into this crappy country and this racist society becouse of my political views, Mr who have done this job from your name i see your a foreigner never until today i have agreed with racist attacks but if the members of the BNP where to attack and beat you to death beleive me i will congratulate them, you have given pain to the families of these people may you live with the same pain till the end of your life
A NEW DAY & A NEW STRUGGLE
Mr Journalist
When the world is very much in need of a few men to understand the few simple values and principles of human life, morality and understanding of basic needs of a human being all we get is a devil without his tools.
GONGRADULATIONS Mr journalist you just managed to get at least another approximate 100 families without, FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, ELECTRICITY, A FAMILY, A PARENT OR BREAD WINNER AND MOST OF ALL NO HOPE.
On your next assignment or job before you do it for interest sake just check if you are not one of the following people in disguise?
· Tomas de Torquemada
· Vlad Tepes
· Adolph Hitler
· Ivan the Terrible
· Adolph Eichmann
· Pol Pot
· Mao Tse-tung
· Ida Amin
· Joseph Stalin
· Genghis Khan
· Gilles de Rais
You are probably not, but you could have been, all you would need as Tools, is money, power, and recognition.
Give us a break Mr Journalist & all you Sirs & Madams out there in the same field of expertise get to the bottom of the problems people are facing not to pretend you don’t know or as if you all got bonkers.
As a human being trying to earn a living, what’s wrong with getting on a bus to go to work or seek employment?
NOTW. What inhuman bastards at this rag of a paper. Their quotes are lies, too... they just make them up. I have personal experience of this. Given that these people are here, is it in our interest that they should:
. work
. steal
. beg
. try to sign on the dole
What a sick scam to play on people doing crap work for crap money so that they can eat.
Anyone know where I can find Mazher Mahmood? I'd like to tell him something. Lean down here my friend Mazher, I have a story for you. *POW* And again. *BAM*
First thing first, news papers would do enything to just to sell more papers. Plying with people like that is out of order.Do they think that it is nice to live your home, father and mother, brother and sister and go to another country!!! Whoever wrote that article is makeing England look bad and I hope that they see that before it is too late.
for the people who disagree and dont like what happened to them, I think they are in denial or their income is based in this way
Actually Take a look on the street will you!
Being here illegally is still 1000 times better than the life these people came from. i would do the same if I was them, Its not fair that all the money is in the west its just how it is!!
Eric Jay
i am fed up of all those aspiring to enter the UK or the EU illegally to cite racism, and other words in defence of their pathetic rhetoric --we have the same problem here in Malta. A refugee is one matter, an illegal immigrant is another. These are people who are cheating, stealing rights and freedoms entitled to other legal migrants and refugees. End of story. They and their racketeers should be hunted down and imprisoned with heavy fines!
And another thing to all those defending these illegal immigrants ....probably illegal immigrants themselves. If you are caught and once you are caught,try to argue your way through the law by claiming asylum if you deserve it and not resort to hate and death wishes. i think the NOTW should do away with such messages and defend the journalist for exposing these scams, which ultimately can destablise the country. let us have some rule of law in the EU and stop all sorts of scoundrels and scammers be it if they are cheating on the dole as is happening in the UK and in Malta as well as those who try to cheat their way in. I expect those who wrote to reply if they have the guts to obey the laws!! CHEATS I tell you again CHEATS!!
I am disgusted that the News of the World (or any newspaper/organisation) would carry out such an appalling act. What is more shocking is that there has not been more of a public outcry about the story. Mazher Mahmood is writing the article as though he is a hero, when he has treated a group of hard-working human beings without the slighest ounce of dignity. If the BNP did the same, they would be targeted as xenopphobic and racist, why isn’t the News of the World being called the same? It is appalling that a newspaper with such influence would abuse its power in this a way. I am just hoping that rational, open-minded, intelligent people will read the story and be as upset and angry as I am that the News of the World could do this and what is worse, get away with it!
In response to Eric Jay, I am not an illegal immigrant and it is still clear to me that what the News of the World has done is wrong. Their actions cannot be justified morally or legally. The labelling of these people as ‘illegal immigrants’ is a tool constructed and used by the media and right-wing groups to sell papers and create worry/tension in the UK. The article does not specify how/why the people taken to Colnbrook came to the UK. They could be refugees/asylum seekers, fleeing persecution in their homeland. Even if they are economic migrants entering the UK ‘illegally’, they are still human beings and should be treated with respect and dignity. In this unequal world, with a global economic order that makes the poor increasingly poorer and the rich increasingly richer, why should we deny the few people who manage to get to the UK, the opportunity to try to make a better life for themselves?
Well, Ms. Sturgeon certainly seems to have written her comments with good intentions. i think that she also agrees that the rule of law should be held. if these people are now in a detention centre, they can prove whether they have any asylum applications pending or they can also apply for asylum in the first place. it is people like these who fuel so much doubt and help extreme right parties to stoke up tensions.
only yesterday in malta, we had a big riot by 370 immigrants who have been kept in detention and they even tried to break into homes to seek shelter. is this the scenario you want ms. sturgeon. Eight policemen were injured, and besides, the crime by foreigners in malta has increased considerably. we also have a big problem with failed asylum seekers because we cannot transport them that easily to their countries of origin or to safe third countries if they have humanitarian protection. Europe as well as many stable African countries must continue helping those experiencing poverty and solutions albeit very difficult must also be found in war torn countries. besides, i think it is also high time for the UK govt to check on those abusing the dole and make sure that people get decent wages for the work that they do. greedy enterpreneurs are abusing these illegal immigrants by giving them low wages. hence the vicious circle. besides, of course, a lot of cultural arrogance that was imposed by a few ethnic races, and last but not least the criminal gangs. i hate to say it but even the maltese(some of whom were also illegal immigrants) were notorious here. it needed margaret thatcher to clean soho from the maltese who were involved in prostitution and which the NOTW which is not my favourite paper anyway exposed them back in 1973. of course, some british guys were also involved so i cannot be labelled as being racist. my argument is simply that these people then are abused and become abusers themselves if immigration is not regulated. this is the pathetic scenario that illegal uncontrolled immigration brings about. and i believe that with half a million illegal immigrants around, the number is anything but few. you know one thing, ms. sturgeon, there are regular refugees in malta who wish to go to britain but the govt doesn't want them because the problem is already quite big. so much for the few illegal immigrants.
i also forgot to mention something and this goes not just to ms. sturgeon but to all and sundry. when i first went to the UK on my own 23 years ago, i had my money counted and was really grilled by the UK authorities because they feared that i was an illegal immigrant. now i look more like Swedish than a Mediterranean guy and then the UK was undergoing a very positive economic phase. i was bewildered but realised that the law is there to be upheld. now being an EU citizen i can come in anytime. it would be unfair for me to be cheated by people who claim rights and freedoms that they don't deserve. i will accept having a genuine, authorised refugee have a job which i may also deserve but rest assured that i will resort to take legal action if i will be denied a job by someone who is profiteering from illegal migrants.
this article should make ms. sturgeon and the other illegal immigrants (even if they are bona fide workers) think twice about entering the island. sadly, you British need another thatcher or even our own dom mintoff who will not tolerate scum of the earth like these gangsters featured in the times article who enter britain illegally and cause so much mayhem.
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The Times August 14, 2004
The trail of death sparked by turf war over drugs
By Carl Fellstrom
John and Joan Stirland, shot while in hiding, were victims of Nottingham’s ‘culture of revenge’
WHEN a middle-aged couple were murdered last weekend in their seaside bungalow, the crime scene carried a blood-soaked label: made in Nottingham.
The city that John and Joan Stirland fled, its streets teeming with guns, gangs and drugs, reached out to a Lincolnshire village last week to claim the couple as the latest victims of an almost endemic culture of revenge.
Another funeral was held in the city yesterday. Two grey horses pulled a carriage holding the body of 19-year-old Jamie Gunn past hundreds of rain-soaked mourners.
Unlike the Stirlands, he did not meet his fate with a bullet, but his death is thought to be inextricably linked to theirs in a cycle of violence that in recent years has turned some inner-city estates into virtual no-go areas.
Between 1994 and 1999, Nottinghamshire police investigated only two murder cases in which the victim had been shot, yet in the past two years there have been 13, most linked to the illegal drugs trade and still unsolved because the law-abiding majority is too scared of reprisals.
For the occasional visitor to a Test match at Trent Bridge, or the tourist delighted by city-centre shopping and its vibrant nightlife, the realisation that armed police regularly tour the inner suburbs may come as something of a shock.
Yet each warring gang has its turf. Jamaican Yardies dominate the crack and heroin market in the Radford area to the west of the city centre. St Ann’s, to the northeast, is patrolled by home-grown Afro-Caribbean criminals; the Meadows, to the southwest, is home to groups of Asian and Afro-Caribbean thugs.
Here, police have found children as young as 13 carrying firearms that seem to be as much of a status symbol as the latest mobile phone, while an arrested 15-year-old will happily tell detectives that his sole ambition is to become a gangster.
Where disputes in the early 1990s were settled with fists or baseball bats, a street gesture of disrespect is now as likely to be met with a display of “juice” (power) by a teenager wielding an Uzi or Mac10 machine pistol.
It is perhaps small wonder that with such deadly tools at the gangs’ disposal, and such an apparent eagerness to use them, it can be hard to persuade a taxi driver to pick up a fare from certain Nottingham streets.
Detectives believe that some gangs now have access to belt-fed machineguns and hand grenades. Much of the weaponry, together with the crack cocaine, finds its way to the East Midlands from Jamaica. The Yardie drug barons have found rich pickings in Nottingham, where the police disbanded its drugs squad four years ago.
They are are often illegal immigrants. During the past three years more than 340 Jamaican citizens have been arrested in Nottingham and thrown out of the country, but, to the intense frustration of the police, it does not take long for most of them to return.
Steve Green, the Chief Constable of Nottingham, revealed this year that in 2002 there were more investigations into shooting offences than in the previous seven years together.
The latest trail of death is thought to have been sparked by a drugs turf war involving a white gang in Bestwood, a sprawling 1950s council estate in Nottingham’s northern fringe that has long been dominated by the Gunn family and their associates, some of whom — according to police sources — have close links with the Yardies.
Gary Salmon, once closely involved with the Gunn family, is said by members of the local underworld to have gone behind the backs of local drug-dealers to set up his own business dealing crack-cocaine.
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further to the developments regarding illegal immigration, we are now getting social workers contracting TB from illegal immigrants being held in detention centres here in Malta. and only a few days ago, some Africans actually took over an Italian fishing boat and demanded to get through to Italy. sheer piracy!! is this what you want to happen in your country and all over europe! no! it is high time we control migration. end of story.
It seems that Mr Jay has missed my point. I believe that there is absolutely nothing wrong with people wanting to come to the UK to work/seek asylum, if I had my way there would be open borders the world over.
It is people with views like Mr Jay's that foster problems for immigrants/asylum seekers coming to the UK. Immigrants/asylum seekers are not criminals and they should not be treated as such by being detained. They do not cause problems, it is the government policies in place and their treatment once they come to the UK (by people with bigotted views) that does.
I hope this clarifies things for you Mr Jay.
Oh yes, ms. sturgeon open up the borders and allow people to become minorities in their own countries as has happened with the case of some libyans in their own cities, hence the dislike for the africans, or what about the idea of not even being able to fly your own flag or not even referring to Christmas because one may offend another religion. Oh come on, let us have our own identities and those who lEGALLY enter the country would be allowed to stay as long as they don't try to impose their own cultures on ours. look at the poles they did integrate. keeping one's identity is surely not a case of racism or bigotry. I want to make things clear, it is duty bound for us to accept refugees and help them in order to foster skills that make them good leaders so that once their country stabilises they will go back. that is what happened to the huguenots in the 17th century, and to the italians who came to the Uk and malta during their turbulent times prior to reunification. Allowing illegal migrants who work for cheap wages, with no protection, with no regulation whatsoever is not conducive to stability. Yes, open borders would be good in an ideal equal world sadly it is not the case. What Ms. Sturgeon should realise is that developed stabilised nations should help as much as possible these poor countries--allowing all the migrants to come in will simply cause more problems. as to tanjil rashid and all the others who wrote, they should realise that the journalist's family came here through legal means at a time when immigration in the UK was allowed. he is just pointing out to the flagrant abuse of the law. yes, let us hope that there will be rule of law and that people realise that getting in illegally does not pay. ms. sturgeon please realise that uncontrolled migration never ever brought any stability anywhere, and that is a fact everyone knows.
Mr. Jay has a valid point. Ms. Sturgeon will perhaps only find out to her detriment if jobs become scarce because of an inevitable migrant surge if she gets her way. The africans aren't going to cross over to the USA --they will come to Europe as they are doing and a great deal will also come over here. No, migration must be controlled otherwise it will be the beginning of a big conflict. Let us face it --these migrants just come for the money and a great deal of them don't have much respect for European mores. I mean i am not just referring to France, look at Sweden particularly Goteborg where almost half of the population is foreign and there has been such a surge in crime. It is significant that now Sweden and even Holland, another very liberal country as regards migration, have now revised their policies.
Whoever rwillmsen is should better be careful in his words --he will realise all too soon if the UK or any other country will find itself destablised with illegal immigrants.
i have just seen a cnn documentary about illegal immigrants crossing from africa to the uk. It does show a great deal of desperation for some, the greed and avarice of those who traffic them, some of whom were illegal immigrants themselves, and even if they do get refugee status, the poor payment and menial work some of them have to do. I completely disagree with ms. sturgeon on open borders. they won't solve anything, they just bring in more people and with less jobs around, that would be a recipe for more crime and conflict. eric jay has a very important point about law and order but he should also realise that a good amount of these people are desperate indeed. although there are those who managed to eke a better existance, many others don't and many others fail to make it or worse still die on the way. the best solution is to have select migration, emphasise the need to protect refugees and make sure that once their country is really stable they RETURN and not overstay one's hospitality. hence the resentment everywhere in the EU. A good step would be generating new projects in nearby stable african or asian countries which would contain such refugees with the same conditions as refugees should have. that would be one step in solving a difficult and complex problem. yet i am very realistic rather than living in cloudcuckooland as ms. sturgeon does or even worse belligerent as some of those who have written in favour of the illegal immigrants have been.
Ok ms. sturgeon with open borders and still so many immigrants legal or otherwise living rough, would you start taking in some of them at your home? or would they also lay claim on housing too. or maybe it is your idea to cut down on bogus refugees-either way it doesn't work! let us help the developing countries, cut down the crap in our country, with so much black economy and dole scroungers around and then make way for legal migrants. The sad thing is that some big corporations won't like that at all since they are forking out very cheap wages. what a vicious circle, --that is the kind of bigotry you should criticise ms. sturgeon.
Hey I just found out that in the Cotonou Agreement, even African countries agreed to take back illegal immigrants. So who's the bigot!?
Let us have proper legal migration and help the developing world rather than make these people heroes. It is significant to state that recently the Greek Foreign Minister also lamented on the intake of foreign illegal immigrants stating that they are inclined to crime.
Mr Jay isn't even from this country; what on earth do you know about the UK, other than coming here from abroad to vist (the irony of which is not lost on me).
Quite frankly, if you're inhumane enough to lock up potential immigrants in Malta you deserve the backlash; thankfully most of us (Mahmood excluded - yet whose parents were also immigrants, of course) have more respect for human life.
God bless (most of) our country and its multi-culturalism. Perhaps that's why we're so much richer than Malta! Ha! Fancy emmigrating to the UK, Eric?
dear anonymous
i can emigrate anytime i like in your country, just as you can come over at any time to ours. what i will not do is to try and cheat on welfare as a lot of illegal immigrants and even some maltese have done! you may also wish to know that i am of English descent and probably am more acquianted with british history than you are--especially if you are an illegal immigrant!!
You know what, let us hold an opinion poll to see if anyone wants open borders. I have probably been to places in the UK more than you have been.
you know what--we maltese as after all i am a maltese citizen have managed to forge our identity without any natural resources and our health services amongst other things is better than yours. it is really pathetic of you to state that we deserve the backlash. if you are so fond of illegal immigrants why not take them up yourself? we don't want them, and nobody wants them, not even in the UK. and this is not out of racism or anything like that --it is just that we cannot stick to people breaking the law, --we have enough problems with our small limited economy. i also want to clarify matters, here in malta, people have always been generous to refugees and those who are genuine refugees are accepted. what we don't want are cheats and scoundrels who are taking jobs and breaking the law as a somali who is in an OPEN centre (Not a detention centre did)
Come on make a serious opinion poll and you'll find out for yourself if any country would accept illegal migration and open uncontrolled borders.
and another thing anonymous, perhaps you or your government or your community whatever it is, can fork out the expenses we have to cope up with every time these scoundrels vandalise our open centres ( i am discounting the closed detention centres since one can give them the benefit of the doubt since they are locked in) You have to be a real SCOUNDREL to damage an open accommodation centre! this is why 95% in malta resent such illegal immigration.
to anonymous
i don't know to whom you are referring to as a moron..certainly not those who will no longer accept abuses by those who pretend who are refugees when they aren't! or to the mayor of Brescia who had no other option but to fence in illegal immigrants because they were responsible for all sorts of crimes! detention centres feature a mixture of genuine refugees and many illegal immigrants the cheats and scoundrels we get around...and by the way if you are an illegal immigrant or whatever you are try to brush up with your english. 'there' should be 'their'--at least you had one good point--track down the traffickers -to which i should also add let the rule of law of upheld. that is what i have been trying to explain throughout these past three months!
i hate to be rude but there is no other alternative sometimes.
Today EU ministers have met in Finland to discuss among other issues, illegal immigration. No single minister is in favour of illegal migration. All agree that they have to be repatriated--it is just the expenses involved that is making the task difficult. No single party all over Europe, west and east and russia want illegal immigrants, only the fringe or ultra liberal parties think otherwise. it is incredible that now even the leftists are FED UP with such a situation. So who's the moron? I was just going through something else when i came across this blog. I am no racist and much in favour of multiculturism but not illegal migrants, --yes most are a big burden we could well do away with.
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