150 staff at Byron burger chain ‘go into hiding’ after immigration sting on training day
35 workers arrested in secret Home Office swoop
AS many as 150 workers from fast food chain Byron Burger could be in hiding after Home Office officials swooped on 15 of its London restaurants in a crack down on illegal immigrants.
Dozens of workers at Byron Burger were arrested by immigration officers earlier this month – after attending a training event allegedly set up by company bosses to lure them in.
The Sun understands that on July 4 workers at 15 of the chain’s London restaurants were called in for a 9.30am training event.
However when they arrived they were swooped on by immigration officers said to be carrying lists of names and photos of those under watch.
A total of 35 workers are were arrested – most of whom were of Latin American descent.
It is alleged that 150 workers have managed to evade the authorities and are currently said to be in hiding, the newspaper reports.
The campaign group "SHAME ON BYRON - No-one is illegal" also made the claims that 150 people had managed to avoid deportation and were in hiding.
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A spokesman for Byron said: “We can confirm that several of Byron’s London restaurants were visited by representatives of the Home Office.
“These visits resulted in the removal of members of staff who are suspected by the Home Office of not having the right to work in the UK, and of possessing fraudulent personal and right to work documentation that is in breach of immigration and employment regulation.
“The Home Office recognises that Byron as an employer is fully compliant with immigration and asylum law in its employment practices, and that Byron had carried out the correct ‘right to work’ checks on staff members, but had been shown false/counterfeit documentation.
“At Byron we are proud of the diversity of our restaurant teams, built around people of all backgrounds and all walks of life.
“We have cooperated fully and acted upon the Home Office’s requests throughout the course of the investigations leading to this action, and will continue to do so.”
Both Byron and the Home Office refused to comment on the claims that 150 of the workers had disappeared fearing they'd be thrown out of Britain if they were caught by the authorities.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office confirmed that 35 people from Albania, Brazil, Nepal and Egypt were arrested for immigration offences in order to progress their removal from the UK.
She said Byron Burger had carried out correct “right to work” checks on staff by had been shown fake documents and therefore would not face any punishment action.
She added: “Immigration Enforcement officers carried out intelligence-led visits to a number of Byron restaurants across London on 4 July, arresting 35 people for immigration offences.
“The operation was carried out with the full co-operation of the business.”
Following the swoop on July 4, thousands of people have begun boycotting the chain for setting up its own workers – with the hashtag #boycottbyron even trending on Twitter.
One worker told the El Iberico newspaper that six people had been targeted at their outlet, two of whom weren’t present when the raid happened.
They said: “They had paper where I could see there were pictures and starting reading out names. They had on their backs ‘immigration police’ and began calling people out one by one.”
The paper alleges that Byron knew what was going on and had helped the Home Office set up the event because “we know we have people working illegally and we called the police”.
The worker added: “People are angry and frightened by this situation. In the years I’ve been in the business I had never seen anything like it.”
The company has 56 restaurants, most of which are in London.
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