Exclusive interview with Mr Lam from the London Chinatown Chinese Association
To listen to the radio programme please click the link: English
要听节目请点击连接： 廣東話 普通话
Following the incident in Chinatown, where over 30 Chinese were arrested by police on suspicion of working without permits, London Huayu volunteer Peter interviews Mt Lam, a lawyer from the London Chinatown Chinese Association about the effects of the incident and whether the methods and policy currently being used by the BIA are appropriate and effective. Is the policy of “not being a soft touch” dissuading people from coming over here? Is preventing people from working in the catering trade likely to force people to find other ways of making ends meet, including possible crime?
To listen to the programme, please click the link at the top of this paragraph. (programme in English, Cantonese and Mandarin).
Interview: Peter & Jabez Lam
Cantonese Translation: Ou Qi 欧奇
Mandarin Translation: Meng Dejian 孟德健
Wine and dumplings: 王雷
EXCLUSIVE: Immigration Officials Raid Chinatown – 30+ migrant workers arrested
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伦敦，中国城，2007年10月11日，星期四.
晴朗的一天，中国城的商户像往常一样营业，到处是忙碌的餐馆和购物的人们。而这注定是中国城不平常的一天。中午12点30分，警察和移民署对这里的一些餐馆进行了突袭搜捕。
Chinatown, London, Thursday 11th October 2007.
A bright and sunny day in Chinatown, and business is as usual. Restaurants are busy and people are going about doing their shopping. But this is no ordinary day for Chinatown. At 12:30 police and immigration staff mount a raid on some of the restaurants in the area.
正在前往一家餐馆的伦敦华语志愿者Cong Qian和peter首先发觉出了事情——一位面色十分惊慌的员工告诉我们，该餐馆暂时停业了，因为“餐馆遇到了麻烦”。
London Huayu volunteers Cong Qian and Peter first became aware of this when trying to go to a restaurant. An extremely worried-looking staff member told us that the restaurant was closed for the moment, as there was a “problem in the kitchen”.
与此同时，大群的围观者聚集在“皇龙轩”饭店周围。警察守在门口，几辆警车则停在外面等候带走被抓获的人们。
Meanwhile, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered about the Royal Dragon. Police were standing at the entrance, and vans were parked outside waiting to take people away.
我们采访了领导此次行动的TONY SMITH——出入境与移民管理署地区负责人，一探究竟。
SMITH确认，共有30人被逮捕，他们来自新加坡、马来西亚和中国。据信，他们中的一些人将在今天被遣返。
Tony Smith, Regional Director of Border and Immigration Agency was present, so we decided to interview him to find out exactly what was happening. He confirmed that there had been 30 arrests of people from Singapore, Malaysia and China. It was confirmed that some of these would be deported today.
SMITH还强调，他们的目标是一些特定的商户，这些商户利用非法劳工，只提供给他们很低的工资和恶劣的工作条件。每雇佣一个非法劳工，该商户将可能被处以最高5000英镑的罚款。
He stressed that they were targeting in particular the businesses that seek to take advantage of illegal workers in order to offer them low wages and poor working conditions. Such businesses can be fined up to £5000 per illegal worker found working on the premises.
安照内政部的媒体部门报道，今天的搜捕对象包括“皇龙轩”、“金龙轩”、“Luxuriance Peking”（全部位于Gerrard 街）；位于Lisle 的“Hong Kong”以及位于“Wardour”街的“ Special Zone”。
Restaurants targeted in today’s raid were the Royal Dragon, the Golden Dragon and the Luxuriance Peking (all on Gerrard Street); the Hong Kong on Lisle Street, and the Special Zone on Wardour Street.
在今天的搜捕行动之后，移民事务大臣Liam Byrne称，有多种措施阻止非法入境英国，其中一项是将在中国施行的“生物签证”。这意味着所有签证申请人将被采集指纹。
Following today’s swoop, Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said that among measures to prevent people coming to the UK illegally, a biometric visa programme will be implemented for China. Every visa applicant will have their fingerprints taken.
想了解怎样避免雇佣到非法劳工的雇主，请登陆www.employingmigrantworkers.org.uk 查询
Employers needing to know which steps to take to avoid taking on illegal workers can visit www.employingmigrantworkers.org.uk for information.
Photos: Cong Qian and London Huayu. © All rights reserved. Audio: © 2007 London Huayu all rights reserved.
