|
Two years before the main event and the London's 2012 Olympic site are already hosting its first international visitors, illegal migrant workers. UK Border agents caught nearly 100 unlawful labourers on the Stratford construction complex between April and November this year. Asylum seekers, who are banned from employment, as well as migrants who had arrived as tourists and overstayed were arrested for immigration offences - half for falsifying passports and other documents. Investigators found staff using borrowed or stolen passports, switched photos and forged visa pages. Many have already been removed from the UK with the rest in many of the offenders have already been removed from Britain, according to the agency. The rest are either in custody, awaiting prosecution or facing deportation. Most from India Most illegals, 32, were from India - there were 12 Nigerians, seven Ukrainians, four Brazilians, four Kosovans, three Moldovans, and two each from Sierra Leone, Albania and Zimbabwe. The remainder described as “others”. Announcing the enforcement action, Tony Smith, the UK Border Agency's Olympics director, said: "The UK Border Agency has officers based permanently at the Olympic site to check the identity of people seeking work and to help ensure the Games are delivered on time, with a workforce legally entitled to be there." Eight people who have the right to work in the UK, including a journalist who tried to expose lax security, were arrested for producing false documents There has been controversy over the number of locals employed on the £9.3bn project - protesters have accused Olympic bosses of exploiting cheap foreign labour.
|
