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Slow day in Chinatown
Restaurants close as workers strike in protest at arrests by immigration officers
CHINATOWN shut up shop yesterday (Thursday) as scores of restaurant workers staged a three-hour strike.
The protest followed a dawn raid on illegal workers in Soho that was televised on BBC News.
More than 100 police and immigration officers swooped on five restaurants last week arresting 30. The majority were released without charge.
The London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA) – representing more than 300 businesses in Chinatown – said they had been made a political scapegoat and accused the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) conducting the raids of “heavyhanded” tactics.
LCCA vice-president Leslie Ng said: “We feel we are being used as a political scapegoat. I do not think they would have done something on this scale in Brixton or Brick Lane.”
The Home Office had used the raid – filmed by BBC television cameras – to raise the profile of controversial ID cards.
Bobby Chan, a legal representative for the LCCA, said: “They only televised the Chinese one. We feel persecuted. The BBC have implied we are involved with Triad and Snakehead gangs.”
He said restaurant managers should not have to check immigration status of its employees.
One restaurant worker said: “Don’t come with the BBC press and handcuffs. Tourists were scared. In the week following the raid business is down 30 per cent.”
Mark Field, Conservative MP for City and Westminster, said: “The subsequent BBC report made unfounded allegations linking the raid
to human trafficking, exploitation and criminal gangs.
“The raids represented a criminalisation of both Chinese residents and genuine refugees who work hard and contribute to such a vibrant area of our city.”
A BIA spokesman said: “This is not about focusing upon one particular community or nationality. Illegal working hurts good business, undercuts legal workers, creates illegal profits and puts those employed at risk.”
Antony Dore, BBC London News Editor said “Immigration – whether legal or not – is one of the biggest issues affecting the capital and BBC London reports it fully and sensitively.
“It was a large raid on a specific area and therefore we considered it as newsworthy.
“Having looked back at the report, I don’t believe it was sensationalist.”
The row over media coverage took an unexpected twist during a meeting between BIA deputy director Rolf Toolin in the LCCA’s headquarters in Gerrard Street yesterday (Thursday).
Reporters were told to leave the conference room by the immigration chief. |
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