| |
Immigration:
Issues
and recommendations
Few
members of the community would be subject
to immigration control, as participants
joked, most are "legal
immigrants" from England.
Therefore the community would have few
experiences with immigration officials.
However, participants did draw attention
to the particular area of raids conducted
by the immigration service on Bangladeshi
restaurants.
Restaurant Raids:
It was felt that officials raided
premises in a wholly unnecessarily macho
and 'Hollywood' style- doors are flung
open, officials run around, warrant cards
are flashed around, and staff rounded up
for documents. At times this has been
done whilst the restaurant is open, in
front of customers, creating a bad
impression. The rationale for such
raids is to check restaurants for staff
working illegally due to their
immigration status prohibiting
employment. However, as the
community are mostly British / Irish
citizens or residents it would be most
unlikely that staff would not be able to
work legally. No one could recall a
single case of immigration encountering
an illegal worker in a Bangladeshi
restaurant. It was felt that
Bangladeshi-owned restaurants are
disproportionately targeted by
immigration and that officials are less
likely to raid "white"
restaurants. A perception that
Bangladeshi restaurants are more likely
to have illegal workers than
"white" restaurants would
appear to be contrary to evidence
provided by both immigration status and
history of not finding illegal workers.
This points to the possibility of
decisions within immigration being taken
on the grounds of racial prejudice and
stereotyping .
Recommendations:
- The
Northern Ireland Office should
designate the Immigration Service
of the Home Office as a public
body under Section 75 of the
Northern Ireland Act (1998).
- If
not already doing so, Immigration
should monitor the numbers
of restaurants raided
from different ethnic minority
and majority communities. Any
disproportion would become
apparent.
Issues of procedures for gaining
permission to raid restaurants and
compensation when raids take place in
front of customers should be looked into.
|
|
