Hundreds of Chinese restaurant workers in London are preparing to strike on Tuesday against what they say are improperly handled immigration raids. A leaflet advertising the strike says that Chinatown members “have the right to be treated with respect, dignity and will not tolerate aggressive or discriminatory behavior from enforcement agencies.”
Sputnik has discussed this with Edmond Yeo, Magistrate and Chair of the Chinese Information and Advice Center.
Sputnik: What’s your take on these immigration raids being carried out now by the UK?
Edmond Yeo: First of all, to begin with, let me make it clear that I speak from my own capacity, not as a magistrate. Let me also make it clear that we’re not against immigration enforcement or officers doing their job to come in and enforce the laws of the land. We're generally speaking, a very law abiding community ourselves here, but what we are against is not about the raids but about the misconduct, the aggression and brutality that was manifested when they came upon us and had the police as well, as if it started just now. All the events that happened thereafter it’s something that our community, and in fact, any other community would not welcome, so there was this aggression. And my take is this: the immigration raids are just being unfair when they’re not being intelligence-lead and targeted specifically, so that they’re out there to be able to get results for getting the immigration raids effectively carried out.
Sputnik: It sounds as though the frustration of the Chinese community is heralded, but what was it specifically about these particular raids that has caused so much upset, you’ve mentioned the aggression, can you be a bit more specific?
Edmond Yeo: I was there on the scene, on the day it happened on July 5th, it was a Thursday late afternoon but as the video clips that have been played in all the interviews that we’ve conducted, the officers went into one of the restaurants and the proper papers and warrants were not issued. I understand they could’ve used another law to bypass that requirement, but that’s fine, and they took away some people and obviously some people in the community must've protested at the way they handled the people who were arrested and handcuffed.
Sputnik: What’s prompted these recent raids? Is there some kind of an agenda? Is there a specific reason?
Edmond Yeo: That’s a very good question. I'm still scratching my head because just days before the raid on July 5th, on that same Monday on July 2nd, we actually had a forum, a roundtable discussion with the immigration senior officers in Chinatown, trying to engage in a dialogue. It was all favorable and friendly and we were trying to encourage transparency in exactly what they do, and days later this happened, and I think it's all to do with, perhaps, a bit of fishing agenda. Just going there and looking on the pretext of looking at alcohol liquor licensing requirements and going in looking for something else. They were looking for people who are actually illegal.
Sputnik: What’s your feeling then in terms of these raids affecting businesses and their owners in Chinatown? It’s only going to cause umbrage, what’s the best way forward? What can you say about the current situation?
Edmond Yeo: Let’s divide this in two parts. When raids like this happen, especially, when it’s done with a very insensitive understanding of exactly how business has to cope with the usual overheads, the raids, salaries and to hit them during the peak hours, like lunchtime or dinner time, it totally smashes up the whole business for the day, and more importantly, the image it then portrays to the customers, the visitors and the tourists that come to London Chinatown; which is part of a very iconic cultural attraction. In every big major city you see there is a Chinatown, when you’re coming to have a peaceful dinner or to socialize and entertain your friends and this is what happens then this has a lasting effect on the image they have of Chinatown. They search the business, for the businessmen, the restaurants and that’s definitely not good for business and not good for London.
Sputnik: Is there a problem with regard to illegal immigration from China to the UK would you say?
Edmond Yeo: I would say it’s not just from China but every other country will have their share of this situation. Yes, there has always been, for a long time now, this illegal migration of people coming for various reasons. But we’ve got laws that should be able to track these people down not treat them like animals.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
