Recent immigration enforcement activity on the Isle of Wight, including arrests at a nail salon and corner shop, has been confirmed as part of a wider Home Office crackdown across the South East.
According to the Home Office, over 400 arrests and nearly 600 enforcement visits have been carried out in the region since last Summer – a 42% increase compared to the previous year. The initiative forms part of the Government’s Plan for Change to restore control over immigration and tackle rogue employers enabling illegal working.
As previously reported by Island Echo, Immigration Enforcement officers made arrests at 2 separate premises on the Isle of Wight during coordinated visits at the end of April. Officers attended a nail salon in Newport, where they arrested 2 males who were found to be working illegally. Another visit took place at a Premier corner shop in Shanklin, where a man was detained for overstaying his visa.
These local actions reflect a much broader push across the South East targeting high-risk businesses such as restaurants, nail bars, construction sites and supermarkets.
Officers say many of those found working illegally are often exploited through long hours, poor pay and unsafe living conditions, with employers profiting while undercutting legitimate local businesses.
The Home Office states that nationally, illegal working arrests have risen by 51%, with 30,000 people returned from the UK over the same period.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, has said:
“Under this government, organised immigration criminals will no longer be allowed to operate in plain sight in our communities.
Article continues below this advertisement “Illegal working undermines our border security, damages our economy and often leads to the exploitation of vulnerable people.”
The Government also plans to tighten Right to Work checks for gig economy and zero-hours employers, including those in construction, delivery and beauty sectors, to prevent further abuse.
All very well arresting them, let’s now make sure we ship them back to where they come from!!
That will never happen, for some reason that is not
the world plan.
Look at what is now going on in L.A
The world is a dangerous place, if there were no wars
in the first place, these persons would have stayed in their
own country.
I am surprised they are not targeting the shops selling
banned Vapes.
In Kent they are going round all the shops rounding up the
now illegal to sell Vapes.
Typical round of ill informed and bigoted options regarding immigration. Yes France is deliberately negligent in allowing these people into boats on their shores but they just want the problem to go away.
“Send them back where they came from”??? Have you even stopped to think about this? Never mind closet racists some of you are overtly racist in your views and you should be ashamed.
It sounds like you are happy for them to take our jobs. Maybe you would like to pay for them being here. I for one am not.
Bottom line is due to them being able to charge lower prices, the buying public who want to purchase everything as cheap as possible and don’t want to pay the going rate to keep standard up that lead to this problem. Prices are driven down, standards are lowered and you end up with cheap crap, but if someone gets a bargain they are happy and don’t think about the consequences.
There should be immigration raids at Dover Beach as soon as they land from France
Why Dover Beach, that’s a bit late by then.
I would have our troops patrolling on the
beaches of France.
Due to France’s “incompetence” they arrive on their
shores before making the trek across the channel
to blighty.
Our Fathers and their Fathers patrolled our borders
during WW2 so it’s not impossible to do the same,
and nowdays we have better technology than we
did between 1939-1945
If all countries patrolled their borders then all these
issues would not take place.
It makes one wonder if what is happening in the world
is what the so called Elite want to happen!.
Spot on, this government and the past are being paid to do exactly that.
How come these people travel through country after country where they could settle they then have thousands of pounds for their trip boat after boat they are full with young men with earphones mobiles top clothes and trainers they come here not for safety they come to disappear run gangs drugs prostitution anything other than contributing to our country they have far more rights than us
Well said and very accurate.
When they cross mid way, have the SBS waiting under water with a large pin.
It’s a shame that journalism is entirely under censorship and control. The tone in public reports, social media mostly, is appealing to sentimentality, so that we may feel sorry for migrants who arrive, so called as refugees, in danger of their lives.
Poppycock!
I live in the Netherlands, and visit England every year. Since the peak of migration in 2015, the reality is (exceptions not ignored) that many migrants arrive for the simple reason of wellfare, and benefits, a job, freedom in general. Theillegal migrants choose illegal practices, fast and easy money.
Many who leave Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe, need to pay £1000 or more to cross the borders and the perilous journey over water, causing trauma and deaths Many who can pay that money must’ve resources enough, in their homeland.
The policy of hotels filled with strong fit men of around 40, who live without paying for food and lodgings, is a destructive polic, disruptive to social cohesion and peace of mind.
Those, living on the breadline in England, can’t be made happy and content, let alone feel compassion for such a policy.
The Government members who signed this policy, in Britain, have lost the use of common sense entirely.
Crime, and drug/childcouriership in my country, on the other side of the N.Sea Channel, is rising fast, and since the summer of 2024, our neighbourhood on the edge of the 4th largest Dutch city, where I live for 35 years now, isn’t as safe and quiet as much as we’re used to.
Recently, I’ve put chain-locks on my frontdoor and bedroom window, and placed a fence around my garden, after a homeless man began to sleep in it for 3 days in the summer of 2024. Our government has officially declared an asylumcrisis, last year, followed by its fall.
The 3rd government fall in row since 2020!
We’ve been to the polls in Oct.2025 and 1 strong party, Forum for Democracy, is standing up for our need to reclaim our country for ourselves again. We can’t be a continent without borders!
At least, the UK has a water-border, and strict control of its coast could restore peace of mind and life again, checking what goes in and out of this beautiful island. Reclaim your right to live in freedom.
It’s a shame that journalism is entirely under censorship and control. The tone in public reports, social media mostly, of migration affairs, is appealing to sentimentality, so that we may feel sorry for migrants who arrive, so called as refugees, in danger of their lives.
Poppycock!
I live in the Netherlands, and visit England every year. Since the peak of migration in 2015, the reality is (exceptions not ignored) that many migrants arrive for the simple reason of wellfare, and benefits, a job, freedom in general. Theillegal migrants choose illegal practices, fast and easy money.
Many who leave Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe, need to pay £1000 or more to cross the borders and the perilous journey over water, causing trauma and deaths Many who can pay that money must’ve resources enough, in their homeland.
The policy of hotels filled with strong fit men of around 40, who live without paying for food and lodgings, is a destructive polic, disruptive to social cohesion and peace of mind.
Those, living on the breadline in England, can’t be made happy and content, let alone feel compassion for such a policy.
The Government members who signed this policy, in Britain, have lost the use of common sense entirely.
Crime, and drug/childcouriership in my country, on the other side of the N.Sea Channel, is rising fast, and since the summer of 2024, our neighbourhood on the edge of the 4th largest Dutch city, where I live for 35 years now, isn’t as safe and quiet as much as we’re used to.
Recently, I’ve put chain-locks on my frontdoor and bedroom window, and placed a fence around my garden, after a homeless man began to sleep in it for 3 days in the summer of 2024. Our government has officially declared an asylumcrisis, last year, followed by its fall.
The 3rd government fall in row since 2020!
We’ve been to the polls in Oct.2025 and 1 strong party, Forum for Democracy, is standing up for our need to reclaim our country for ourselves again. We can’t be a continent without borders!
At least, the UK has a water-border, and strict control of its coast could restore peace of mind and life again, checking what goes in and out of this beautiful island. Reclaim your right to live in freedom.
It’s a shame that journalism is entirely under censorship and control. The tone in public reports, social media mostly, of migration affairs, is appealing to sentimentality, so that we may feel sorry for migrants who arrive, so called as refugees, in danger of their lives.
Poppycock!
I live in the Netherlands, and visit England every year. Since the peak of migration in 2015, the reality is (exceptions not ignored) that many migrants arrive for the simple reason of wellfare, and benefits, a job, freedom in general. Theillegal migrants choose illegal practices, fast and easy money.
Many who leave Africa, the Middle East, or Eastern Europe, need to pay £1000 or more to cross the borders and the perilous journey over water, causing trauma and deaths Many who can pay that money must’ve resources enough, in their homeland.
The policy of hotels filled with strong fit men of around 40, who live without paying for food and lodgings, is a destructive polic, disruptive to social cohesion and peace of mind.
Those, living on the breadline in England, can’t be made happy and content, let alone feel compassion for such a policy.
The Government members who signed this policy, in Britain, have lost the use of common sense entirely.
Crime, and drug/childcouriership in my country, on the other side of the N.Sea Channel, is rising fast, and since the summer of 2024, our neighbourhood on the edge of the 4th largest Dutch city, where I live for 35 years now, isn’t as safe and quiet as much as we’re used to.
Recently, I’ve put chain-locks on my frontdoor and bedroom window, and placed a fence around my garden, after a homeless man began to sleep in it for 3 days in the summer of 2024. Our government has officially declared an asylumcrisis, last year, followed by its fall.
The 3rd government fall in row since 2020!
We’ve been to the polls in Oct.2025 and 1 strong party, Forum for Democracy, is standing up for our need to reclaim our country for ourselves again. We can’t be a continent without borders!
At least, the UK has a water-border, and strict control of its coast could restore peace of mind and life again, checking what goes in and out of this beautiful island. Reclaim your right to live in freedom.