Illegal swoop
01 May 1994
70 people were arrested in one of the biggest ever immigration swoops, 'Operation Elgar', in which over 100 addresses were raided in a joint immigration service and Met police operation in April. 24 of the 70, mainly Ghanaian and Nigerian, were treated as illegal entrants, and 48 more were detained for questioning and later released. The Home Office originally claimed that all those detained worked for Southwark Council, in factonly one of them did. Among those raided was a British-born Home Office employee whose wife, seven months pregnant, said: "I opened the door still in my night clothes and was shoved aside by four big policemen. They said I was living off the state and that I would be having my baby in Nigeria. Even after they were shown my passport they did not apologise."
South London Press, 4.5.94; Voice, 3.5.94