Raid nets 20 immigrants

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Thursday 11th Sep 2003.

TWENTY illegal Brazilian immigrants were arrested in a raid at the Faccenda chicken factory, in Sutton Benger, on Monday September 8.

A team of immigration officers and police swooped on the factory at 3.30pm, after intelligence revealed that nine women and 11 men were working there illegally after entering the UK with counterfeit documents.

A statement issued by the Home Office confirmed that the immigrants had been arrested in the raid, along with one other woman who requested asylum.

Four of the immigrants were flown back to Brazil on Monday evening, and another ten were flown out on Tuesday evening.

The remaining six were scheduled to leave yesterday.

Raid on chicken plant nets illegal immigrants

TWENTY Brazilian illegal immigrants were arrested in a raid at the Faccenda chicken factory in Sutton Benger on Monday.

A team of immigration officers and police swooped on the factory at 3.30pm, after intelligence revealed that nine women and 11 men were working there illegally after entering the UK with counterfeit documents.

Many workers are supplied to the factory by Storm Recruitment Ltd in Commercial Road, Swindon, although a spokeswoman from the agency said the immigrant workers had not been supplied by them.

Gordon Wilson, who is the treasurer of the Sutton Benger action group, which has been involved in long-running protests against noise and smells from the factory said: "I regularly see people being bussed into the factory and many seem to be of foreign origin, so I'm not exactly surprised at this."

A statement issued by the Home Office confirmed that 11 men and nine women had been arrested in the raid, along with one other Brazilian woman who requested asylum.

Four of the immigrants were flown back to Brazil on Monday evening, while another ten were flown out on Tuesday night.

The remaining six were scheduled to leave the country yesterday.

The woman who claimed asylum in the UK, has been taken to the Oakington Fast Track Reception Centre in Cambridgeshire, where her request will be processed.

The Home Office would not comment on whether further action would be taken against the factory, but said that all intelligence relating to the case would now be analysed.

A spokesman for Faccenda, said: "We have a good working relationship with the immigration office at Portishead going back some years.

"This was a planned exercise by the immigration service and the police following enquiries that had taken place over the course of eight weeks. It resulted in a number of people being taken away for further questioning in relation to forged documents.

"Immigration have thanked us for our full co-operation."

The mass arrest of illegal immigrants at the Sutton Benger factory is the latest in a catalogue of incidents at the troubled site.

In September 2000, two asylum seekers working at the factory, then Webbs Country Foods, were sent back to Albania when their bid for asylum was turned down.

Refugees Edmond and Matilda Koci lived in Chippenham for two years and became operatives in the factory as soon as they were legally allowed to work.

In March 2002, Faccenda was fined £14,000 by Chippenham Magistrates Court when it pleaded guilty to failing in its duty to protect the health and safety of its staff, after a teenage worker lost two fingers in a chicken-skinning machine.

Surgeons amputated 17-year-old Martin Major's little finger and ring finger from his mangled right hand after he reached into the machine to free a stuck chicken carcass in August 2001.

In June 2002 the company was in the spotlight again when it was revealed that the toilet seats had been removed from the gents toilets. It was rumoured that it was done to stop workers spending too much time in the toilets.

Two months later, the Faccenda group was fined £75,000 for polluting the River Avon from its Sutton Benger factory.

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