Two-thirds of UK immigration raids end with no arrests, FOI figures show

Almost two-thirds of immigration enforcement visits last year ended with no arrests, according to freedom of information requests made by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian. Officers carried out 23,538 engagements in 2025 — roughly 60 a day — across nail bars, car washes, barbers, takeaways, construction sites, warehouses and homes. Of those, 15,578, or 66.1%, resulted in zero arrests.

Warrants were used in only 25.81% of visits where officers gained access to a premises. Most entries instead relied on consent from a tenant, manager or owner — more than 12,000 cases last year — or on section 179 of the Licensing Act 2003, which lets officers walk into restaurants, pubs, hotels and cafes without a warrant. Nearly nine in ten leads about "immigration crime" in 2025 came from the public or the anonymous tip line Crimestoppers, with about 2% coming from police.

The Home Office rejected the suggestion that its teams run fishing expeditions, saying intelligence is thoroughly examined before any raid. Former immigration officer Kevin Barker, who now works with businesses wrongly accused of hiring people without the right to work, disagreed. He said officers are barred from seeking search warrants on old or uncorroborated anonymous allegations — "but it doesn't stop them."

One raid landed on Sultanz, an Indian restaurant in Camborne, Cornwall, last month as customers were eating. Owner Samsu Ali said officers arrived in unmarked vans and had no warrant, describing the scene as an invasion of his six-year-old business. Bangladeshi worker Nanu Mia, who was packing takeaway orders, was handcuffed, arrested and taken to a van after officers struggled to understand him; he was de-arrested and freed once his sister arrived with his ID proving he could work. Ali said customer numbers have dropped sharply since, even though the business was cleared of any immigration breaches, and that racist and threatening comments in a local Facebook group left him struggling to sleep.

Green party deputy leader Mothin Ali called the findings alarming and urged the government to "end these unjustified raids and protect people's rights," adding: "This is racist harassment dressed up as immigration enforcement." Arrests of people working illegally in the UK have doubled since Labour took office — the Home Office said in August that more than 17,000 had been made since July 2024, a 122% increase on the previous two years. Shabana Mahmood has championed the wider use of enforcement teams, saying they protect the border by removing an incentive for irregular migration, while opposition parties argue illegal work opportunities pull migrants across the Channel in small boats.