92 foreign workers held

On Tuesday, immigration and police officers descended on the village at around 6am to apprehend a busload of workers who were en route to a food processing factory in Hastings.

The operation was in response to intelligence gained by the immigration service about a large number of foreign residents working illegally in Sussex.

When the 92 food factory workers were stopped on Tuesday, they were taken in by police and an extensive interview process was started to discover if they were within their rights to work in the UK.

Residents in Herstmonceux awoke to find a major police presence on the main road through the village. It is believed the double-decker bus carrying the workers had picked up its passengers at various locations in the Eastbourne and Hailsham area.

By Tuesday afternoon, 13 immigration offenders had been identified from the group, but a spokesman for the Home Office said that interviewing all of them would be a very long and drawn-out procedure, which was continuing later this week.

The spokesman added: 'The Government is committed to taking firm action against illegal immigrants and immigration offenders.'

He explained that not all 'immigration offenders' are illegal immigrants. Some may be living quite legally in Britain but be infringing the terms of their work permit.