‘Police Don't Need a Warrant to Conduct a Raid’ – Chinese Association Spokesman

Chinese restaurant workers in London’s Chinatown are going on strike on Tuesday against what they say are disruptive and violent UK immigration raids carried out by the Home Office.

Protesters plan to march from Chinatown to the Home Office building several kilometers away. They will demand to be treated with "respect and dignity."

A senior spokesman for the London Chinatown Chinese Association, Lawrence Lee, has explained to Sputnik why the Chinese community feels these immigration enforcement raids are unjust:

"The officer has the power to come to any businesses that have a license, that sell alcohol, and therefore it literally means any restaurant without a warrant. They can come and conduct these raids without a warrant. In the past, when they came to do a raid, they needed to go to the court, they needed to get a warrant, checks, and balances, but now they can just come in, and even if they do not make any arrests at the end of the operation, they cause huge damage to the business.

Number one, the business has to stop trading during the operation, which could last for five hours, and then people in the restaurant are being shouted at, including the customers, and that does not pose goodwill."

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Tuesday's strike comes after disruptive immigration raids were carried out earlier this month. One of the raids, on July 5th, prompted an elderly Chinese woman to lie on the road in front of an immigration enforcement van in protest after she reportedly begged officers to release a worker from her village.

Before the raids began, on July 2nd the Home Office had a roundtable with the locals to discuss immigration issues.

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