A large scale UK immigration raid has resulted in a total of 33 arrests in Leicester.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) discovered the illegal workers in 12 textile businesses in Leicester's Imperial Typewriter Building.
Warrants were issued for the East Park Road premises on June 7th and more than 70 UKBA officers carried out what was one of the largest UK immigration operations undertaken in the region.
The UK work permits and immigration statuses of around 80 workers at the businesses were checked by the officers.
Of these employees, 33 were found to have no right to be in the UK and will be removed from the country.
Meanwhile, the businesses that employed the immigrations, who were from Pakistan and India, face some substantial fines if they are unable to prove that they conducted the correct UK immigration checks on the employees.
Damian Green, the UK immigration minister, commented: "This operation is one of the largest we have conducted in the Midlands and reinforces our determination to identify and remove more people with no legal right to work in this country."
He added that the government is in the process of "radically reforming the immigration system".
Meanwhile, the deputy director for the Midlands and the East at the UKBA, Simon Excell, said that the Leicester building had been a "magnet for those with no right to live or work in the UK".
He remarked: "Illegal working is not only unfair on law-abiding businesses, we also often find that those who are happy to take on staff with no right to work are also happy to treat those employees with contempt, making them work long hours, in poor conditions, for less than the minimum wage."