The government has announced that arrests for illegal working have soared to their highest levels since records began, following an uplift in enforcement action.
Under Operation Sterling, the government invested £5 million into Immigration Enforcement, to target, arrest, detain, deport and return illegal workers in takeaways, fast food delivery services, beauty salons and car washes.
New figures show more than 8,000 illegal migrants have been arrested after 11,000 raids were carried out by Immigration Enforcement from October 2024 to September 2025.
Marking the largest enforcement crackdown on illegal working since records began, the data reveals a significant increase year on year of 63% and 51% for arrests and visits, respectively. Over 1,050 foreign nationals encountered on these operations have been removed from the country.
This comes as government is expanding right to work checks under tough new laws, to ensure it covers categories of employers where there are higher levels of illegal migrants seeking work, including gig economy employers.
While it is a criminal offence for migrants to work illegally, only companies using traditional employer to employee contracts are obliged to verify someone’s immigration status and whether it permits them to work in the UK.
The new laws close this loophole so there will be no hiding place for illegal workers who flout the rules in the gig, casual, subcontracted and temporary worker economy.
Bosses who fail to conduct these checks could be jailed for up to five years, face fines of £60,000 per illegal worker and have their businesses closed.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, said: “Illegal working creates an incentive for people attempting to arrive in this country illegally. No more. Those found to be illegally working in beauty salons, car washes and as delivery drivers will be arrested, detained and removed from this country.”
The government is also working closely with industry partners including food delivery giants Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, who have strengthened ID verification checks across their platforms. The Home Office has also implemented a data sharing agreement with the firms, to securely share locations of hotels used for asylum accommodation, in a bid to catch asylum seekers working illegally as delivery riders.
In August, the government announced that hundreds of illegal delivery drivers at a range of businesses including restaurants, had been arrested as part of its drive to crack down on immigration crime.
Under Operation Equalize, the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement teams launched a nationwide intensification week of activity targeting illegal working hotspots, with a focus on the gig economy and migrants working as delivery riders. It said that between 20 and 27 July 2025, a total of 1,780 individuals were stopped and spoken to, leading to 280 arrests for illegal working activity. In addition to the arrests made as part of Operation Equalize, 51 businesses, including car washes, restaurants and retail premises, were issued with Civil Penalty Referral Notices. This could see them face hefty fines if they are found to have employed illegal workers and failed to conduct relevant pre-employment checks.
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