'Racist' immigration raids have London's Chinatown up in arms
Hundreds take to the streets against what they say are racist and disruptive random sweeps by border agents targeting illegal immigrants
Members of London's Chinese community have accused immigration authorities of conducting racist "fishing raids" in Chinatown as they carry out a controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Scores of Chinese-run businesses claim they have lost thousands of pounds and had their reputations damaged by a widening of the UK Border Agency dragnet.
"The raids have been averaging once a week and their heavy- handed nature is causing racial tensions which we have never really experienced among our community," Lawrence Cheng, secretary general of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, said yesterday.
Cheng helped organise the protest that saw more than 1,500 restaurant owners, shop staff and local residents march through Chinatown on Tuesday.
The protesters blew whistles and carried banners bearing slogans such as "Stop racist UKBA raids" following the 13th raid since July.
Shops and restaurants were shut for several hours to "show solidarity against the rising discrimination". "This shows the rising anger out there towards these fishing raids, which are not intelligence-led and appear to have questionable procedures and cause intimidation," Cheng said.