'The system is broken' Councillor hits out at immigration raids

A PROMINENT city councillor and Bristol businessman has called for an end to Home Office immigration raids, and said he has 'had enough' of the scapegoating of businesses that are employing undocumented workers.

- Tristan CORK

Abdul Malik said his businesses have been raided before, and the system is 'broken' because many of the employees discovered by the Government agencies are eligible to work, but delays and failures in bureaucracy mean they are waiting months for the paperwork to arrive.

Cllr Malik (Green, Ashley) spoke out after the Post reported that a crackdown by the Home Office on undocumented workers and an increase in the fines that were being dished out to mostly small businesses hit by the raids was leading to some businesses in Bristol going bust.

In just the last three months of 2024, 13 businesses across Bristol, Gloucestershire and Somerset were fined a total of more than £700,000, with nail bars, restaurants, newsagents, car washes and a healthcare recruitment agency fined anything from a few thousand to as much as £120,000. The figures came from the regular quarterly update on a Government website that seeks to 'name and shame' businesses that are fined.

Cllr Malik said the root cause of the problem was twofold: successive Governments have refused to give refugees and asylum seekers the right to work while they wait for their asylum claims to be decided, and secondly that even when people are allowed to work in the UK, the system to obtain the correct paperwork is 'broken.

"It's not easy being a small business owner in this country right now, especially if you're from a migrant background, or you're part of the communities that get targeted first when the government needs a headline," he said.

"I've had my businesses raided by immigration officers. I've seen it with my own eyes. They come in like they're kicking down the door of a criminal empire, when in reality, it's just people trying to earn an honest living.