A motorbike rider out on a procuring journey was arrested and detained for a month as a part of a high-profile authorities crackdown on undocumented migrants working for meals supply apps.
Fernando Fontoura, 33, who moved from Portugal to the UK when he was 12, was arrested by immigration enforcement officers after he parked his bike close to a grocery retailer in south-east London on 22 July. He was taken to a detention centre close to Gatwick airport the place he was held for 29 days.
“I’ve been right here [in the UK] for 21 years. It’s fully unfair,” he mentioned. “[The Home Office] says I’ve no lawful foundation to be within the UK. However my household is right here. My fiancee is right here. I’ve been paying taxes right here for over 10 years. I studied right here. I did my GCSEs and NVQs right here. I obtained my insurance coverage quantity on the age of 16.”
Fontoura’s mother and father moved to London in 2004. His father labored in building and his mom labored as a cleaner. “I made my life right here,” Fontoura mentioned. “I grew up in England. I picked up the language, the tradition and all the pieces else. I built-in into the group and I’ve been right here ever since, other than just a few years travelling.”
The House Workplace has stepped up sweeps of workplaces on the lookout for undocumented migrant employees since Labour got here to energy. Immigration enforcement raids concentrating on migrant employees and arrests for “unlawful working” elevated by about 50% within the first 10 months of the Labour authorities in contrast with the identical interval the 12 months earlier than, underneath the Conservatives.
The coverage, which has been criticised by refugee charities, is a key a part of the federal government’s faltering technique to carry again the advance of Reform UK. The prime minister posted twice on X in August about arrests of a whole lot of supply drivers “dishonest our system” and “working illegally”.
The House Workplace opposed bail for Fontoura, arguing there was no proof to help his declare that he entered the UK in 2004 along with his household. However the Guardian has seen official paperwork demonstrating Fontoura grew up within the UK, together with a letter from his secondary faculty in Stockwell, south London, which he attended from 2005 to 2008.
Different paperwork present HMRC issued him with a nationwide insurance coverage quantity in 2009, and he labored in an electronics retailer in Croydon in 2015. A 2006 Division for Work and Pensions doc states his father got here to the UK along with his spouse and youngsters, together with Fontoura, in 2004.
Fontoura was granted bail on 19 August. He has been banned from working and has to report back to an immigration centre each fortnight whereas the House Workplace investigates. “They allowed me out, however they cancelled my insurance coverage quantity, so I’m not allowed to search for work or to do something to take care of myself,” he mentioned.
He lives with the fixed concern of arrest. “They will take me again to [the immigration detention centre] at any time. Though I’m outdoors, I’m not free. It makes you’re feeling paranoid, as a result of you realize at any time you return to the identical nightmare that you just’ve been coping with for the final month.”
The Work Rights Centre, a charity supporting migrant employees, helps Fontoura apply for settled standing. He thought he was classed as a UK resident as he was capable of come and go from the UK whereas travelling round Europe. He didn’t realise he wanted to use underneath the post-Brexit scheme for EU nationals.
Luke Piper, who’s the centre’s head of immigration, mentioned Fontura had a superb case for settled standing as individuals can nonetheless apply if they will reveal cheap grounds for a delay.
He mentioned he was involved that the federal government’s crackdown on “unlawful working” could also be catching individuals who have reliable causes to be within the UK and people who find themselves struggling to show their immigration standing.
“It’s the draconian response [of the Home Office] to those sorts of points that then produces harmful outcomes, the place individuals lose their job, find yourself detained, lose their home and so forth,” Piper mentioned.
The House Workplace mentioned it will not be acceptable to touch upon a case that’s nonetheless underneath investigation.
