Yvette Cooper vows to 'swiftly' deport illegal migrants in immigration blitz raids on car washes and nail bars

Migrants from countries like Vietnam will be targetted - as they represent the largest group crossing the English Channel illegally but unlikely to be given asylum.

Cooper said the raids will crack down on illegal immigration and smash criminal gangs profiteering from it.

She wrote in the Sun: "We cannot pretend everything is okay. Not when criminal gangs are making millions out of dangerous small boat crossings that undermine our border security and put lives at risk.”

"We have directed Immigration Enforcement to intensify their operations over the summer, with a focus on employers who are fuelling the trade of criminal gangs by exploiting and facilitating illegal working here in the UK – including in car washes and in the beauty sector.

“And we are drawing up new plans for fast track decisions and returns for safe countries.

“Most people in this country want to see a properly controlled and managed asylum system, where Britain does its bit to help those fleeing conflict and persecution, but where those who have no right to be in the country are swiftly removed.”

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This comes following several GB News investigations into asylum seekers working illegally in Britain over the years.

In May last year, GB News reporter Mark White confronted asylum seekers who were working at a carwash in Aldershot.

Residents in the Hampshire town said they regularly saw a group of young men cycling from their asylum accommodation in the town, to a carwash about a mile away.

They filmed over multiple days as the men left the accommodation, a hotel requisitioned on behalf of the Home Office, and arrived for work at the car washing business, which is next to a local filling station.

GB News filmed secretly from a park opposite the carwash and captured three men, who were also filmed heading in and out of the asylum seeker hotel accommodation.

We confronted one of the men on camera with our evidence.

The man who was working a jetwash told us he was Iraqi, but when he was asked if he was an asylum seeker and whether he knew it was illegal to work as an asylum seeker, he said he didn’t speak much English.