Factory raid on migrants nets Ghanaians

UK -- Immigration officers today swooped on a Telford business and issued 37 orders to deport illegal immigrant workers at Epson.

More than 50 officers from the Immigration Service carried out the morning raids as staff were finishing the night shift at the ink cartridge manufacturer's Hortonwood base.

In Operation Geomancy, 37 people from Ghana, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and India were rounded up by officers and were screened and questioned before the removal direction orders were served on them.

Within the next two weeks, they will be flown to the last European country where they were before they entered Britain.

Epson Telford Ltd worked closely with immigration officials after suspecting some of its staff had been smuggled into the country by organised criminal gangs, a spokesman said today.

Further raids were being carried out in neighbouring housing estates today, looking for a further 22 people suspected of being illegal immigrant workers at the plant.