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Seven
held in raid on top restaurant
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Bosses at
three top Edinburgh curry houses hit out at "heavy-handed"
immigration officials who raided the restaurant as it was about to
open according to Edinburgh Evening News.
About a dozen
immigration and police officials swooped on the award-winning
Britannia Spice in Leith's Commercial Street as well as associated
restaurants The Verandah and Lancers recently.
Diners were
not allowed into the restaurant as officers searched the premises for
an hour before taking some men, all of whom are thought to be in
their 20s and of Bangladeshi origin, away for further questioning.
Home Office
officials at the time would not confirm how many of the men, believed
to be waiters and kitchen staff, had been arrested but said
investigations were ongoing.
Abu Zaman, a
director of Britannia Spice, was quizzed by officials and claims he
was almost arrested until he produced his passport which was in the
restaurant's safe.
He said:
"They took all of my personal files away and they kept asking me
for more ID, even though I showed them my driving licence and bank cards.
"I was
just shocked at how rude they were and the men were all being
co-operative so they didn't need to handcuff them.
"I pay
taxes for all the men taken away and as far as I know they are in the
UK legally. Two of them were just on a trial to see if they were any
good for the job."
According to
Mr Zaman, the men taken away by immigration officials were a mix of
students, full-time workers and asylum seekers.
Safwat Jani
Choudhury, 18, a photography student at Stevenson College who is
originally from Bangladesh, was handcuffed and taken away for
questioning by officials before later being released.
He said:
"I couldn't believe what was happening. I was showing them my
student ID card and asking them to check the spelling of my name but
they kept telling me to shut up.
"They
took me away and eventually someone at the station listened to me and
saw they had got the spelling of my name wrong so that was why I was
not on their system.
"I am in
this country legally and have paid a lot of money to study here -
they just didn't want to know."
In April of
last year, immigration officials swooped on the Omar Khayyam
restaurant on the corner of Haymarket Terrace and Grosvenor Street
and arrested three workers.
Muffazal
Choudhury, 28, a waiter at Britannia Spice, said: "I thought the
attitude of the officers was really bad because nobody was fighting
what they were doing but they were being aggressive towards us. I
have worked with some of these guys for a couple of years now and
they are nice people."
A Home Office
spokeswoman said: "A number of arrests have been made and
investigations are continuing. The Immigration and Nationality
Directorate is committed to tackling illegal working and adopts an
intelligence led approach to operations.
"The
government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach to
removing people from the country where they have no legal right to be here."
Britannia
Spice was named as the best restaurant in Scotland in June at the
Best In Britain Awards (BIBA) and the recent British Curry Awards.
The awards are
designed to recognise excellence in ethnic restaurants across Britain
and Britannia Spice's chairman and chief executive, Dr Wali Tasar
Uddin, was also named "industry personality of the year" by BIBA.
The Leith
restaurant has been listed in the Best In Britain top 30 eateries
since 2003 and won the top Scotland title at The British Curry Awards
for the second year running. Dr Uddin, a JP for nearly 20 years, said
that he had received apologies for the manner of the raids.
It is
understood that the raids were intelligence led, initiated by
Immigration officials rather than the Lothian and Borders Police with
other government departments also taking an interest in the ongoing
case and that other similar raids can be expected.
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