MORE THAN 8,000 illegal migrant workers were arrested over the past year in the largest enforcement crackdown since records began, the Home Office has announced.
Immigration Enforcement officers made 11,000 raids between October 2024 and September 2025, targeting takeaways, food delivery drivers, beauty salons and car washes. The number of arrests rose 63 per cent compared with the previous year, while visits increased 51 per cent.
More than 1,050 foreign nationals caught during the operations have been removed from the country, according to figures released on Tuesday (28).
The surge in enforcement follows a £5 million government investment in Operation Sterling, which was ordered by then home secretary Yvette Cooper. The operation has been overseen by Bas Javid, director-general for immigration enforcement at the Home Office and brother of former home secretary Sajid Javid.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood, said, "Illegal working creates an incentive for people attempting to arrive in this country illegally. No more. Those found to be illegally working in beauty salons, car washes and as delivery drivers will be arrested, detained and removed from this country.
"I will do whatever it takes to secure Britain’s borders."
The government will launch a six-week consultation on Wednesday (29) on plans to expand right-to-work checks to cover the gig economy, where there has been a surge in illegal working.
Under current law, only companies using traditional employer-to-employee contracts must verify someone's immigration status. This has allowed asylum seekers staying in taxpayer-funded hotels to work as delivery riders for Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat within days of arriving in the UK on small boats.
Asylum seekers are banned from working during their first 12 months in the UK or until their claim has been approved.
An estimated five million people are self-employed in the UK, with more than 1.5 million thought to be working in the gig economy.
The proposed changes would close this loophole to ensure there is "no hiding place for illegal workers who flout the rules in the gig, casual, subcontracted and temporary worker economy", the Home Office said.
Employers who fail to conduct checks could face up to five years in prison, fines of £60,000 per illegal worker, and have their businesses closed.
Ministers believe the crackdown will reduce the "pull factors" that attract migrants to travel to the UK illegally.
The government is also working with food delivery companies Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, which have strengthened identity verification checks on their platforms.
The Home Office has implemented a data-sharing agreement with the firms to share locations of hotels used for asylum accommodation, in a bid to catch asylum seekers working illegally as delivery riders.
The figures come as the government faces embarrassment over its one-in, one-out returns deal with France. Channel 4 News tracked down two migrants deported under the scheme to northern France, where one told the broadcaster they viewed the deal as "a game" and vowed to return to the UK.
"If we have a chance to go back legally, we would. I will try my best to again go to the UK. I don't have any choice. If I go [back] to my country, the government will kill me. I think I'll be [only] safe in the UK," one said.
Some 36,736 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up 23 per cent on last year but 2,000 short of the numbers at the same point in the record year of 2022, according to the Times.
The total of 21,858 raids carried out by Immigration Enforcement is up 38 per cent from 15,894 in the previous 12 months and the highest level since 2011, when comparable data was first collected. The previous peak of 20,989 was in the year to September 2015.
