Hundreds of arrests have been made across the UK following a week-long crackdown on riders working illegally for delivery firms.
Under Operation Equalize, the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement teams launched a nationwide intensification week of activity targeting illegal working hotspots, with a focus on the gig economy and migrants working as delivery riders.
Between 20 and 27 July 2025, a total of 1,780 individuals were stopped and spoken to, leading to 280 arrests for illegal working activity.
As a direct result of this operation, 53 individuals are now having their asylum support reviewed, which could result in their support being suspended or withdrawn.
This follows warnings from ministers last month that anyone caught flagrantly abusing the immigration system could face having their asylum support ceased, such as entitlement to accommodation or payments. Those caught working illegally face removal from the UK.
The results come as the Home Office confirms today (9 August) that Immigration Enforcement teams will receive a £5 million funding boost to ramp up illegal working intensification activity even further.
The cash injection, to be drawn from the £100 million investment for border security announced earlier this week, will contribute to a major surge in enforcement visits over the coming months.
It will allow officers to revisit and re-attend illegal working hotspots more frequently and increase enforcement teams’ intelligence gathering capabilities to support frontline enforcement activity.
The results of Operation Equalize come just weeks after the Home Office announced a new agreement with top food delivery firms that will see Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat receive new information concerning the location of asylum hotels to help better target people working illegally.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle said
Illegal working undermines our border security and we’re cracking down hard on it.
That’s why we have intensified our enforcement activity right across the UK to crack down on those who think they can evade immigration and employment laws in the UK.
This government is making sure rules are respected and enforced – this operation is just one example of our relentless efforts to bear down on organised immigration crime at every level in our communities.
In addition to the arrests made as part of Operation Equalize, 51 businesses, including car washes, restaurants and retail premises, were issued with Civil Penalty Referral Notices. This could see them face hefty fines if they are found to have employed illegal workers and failed to conduct relevant pre-employment checks.
The operation was also supported by police forces across the UK, with officers seizing 71 vehicles throughout the week, including 58 e-bikes, as well as £8,000 in cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act and around £460,000 in illicit cigarettes.
During one Operation Equalize visit on Tuesday 22 July, officers in West London arrested 7 Indian nationals in Hillingdon, with 5 detained as a result.
Meanwhile, Immigration Enforcement Officers made 3 arrests in Dumfries, Scotland during a joint operation with police and Trading Standards on tobacco control.
And on Friday 25 July, 5 e-bikes were seized by police in Birmingham city centre where Immigration Officers arrested 2 riders of Bangladeshi and Ethiopian nationality for illegal working offences.
Eddy Montgomery, Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime at the Home Office, said
We continue to intensify our activity against those who think they can get away with working illegally.
My teams have been taking action around the clock, all across the country and I thank them for their hard work, co-operation and skill in dealing with this challenging issue.
I welcome the additional funding which will allow us to strengthen our enforcement efforts against illegal working further, to ensure those fuelling it are caught.
The government is also tightening the law by making it a legal requirement for all companies, including the gig economy, to check that anyone working for them has the legal right to do so. This will end the abuse of flexible working arrangements. The new measures will be introduced through the landmark Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.
These measures form a key part of a whole system approach to tackling illegal migration from every angle, by removing the false promise of jobs used by smuggling gangs to sell spaces on small boats.
Just this week, the Home Office announced the latest step towards dismantling the criminal trade in small boat crossings as the UK-France treaty to target illegal crossings came into force. The groundbreaking agreement means anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained immediately on arrival and returned to France by the UK government, with detentions having already begun.
On top of this, a wider £100 million investment in border security, confirmed earlier this week, will drive a major new crackdown by funding up to 300 extra National Crime Agency Officers and state of the art technology to smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel.
Since coming into power a year ago, the government has also returned 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK, including failed asylum seekers, immigration and foreign national offenders. Since the election, there are now fewer asylum hotels open, saving millions of taxpayers’ money.
