Raids to Target Car Washes, Nail Bars as Home Office Diverts Manpower From Rwanda Scheme

Yvette Cooper said she had redeployed 1,000 staff who had been working on the Rwanda scheme into a new immigration enforcement programme.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper arrives in Downing Street, London, on July 16, 2024. Jeff Moore/PA Wire

Car washes and beauty salons will be targeted in immigration raids while 1,000 civil servants working on the Rwanda deportation scheme have been redeployed, the home secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said staff have been moved into a new Returns and Enforcement programme, which is designed to “increase returns of those with no right to be here and to make sure rules are respected and enforced, starting with an increase in illegal working raids.”