20 expatriate Bangladeshis held in UK

The UK Border Agency arrested 20 Bangladeshi expatriates under a special law enforcement operation aiming at reducing illegal immigration, said a press release of the British High Commission in Dhaka yesterday.
Eleven of the men were detained in north Britain in late July and the other nine in the country's southwestern part between August 3 and 5.
They were arrested for working and owning businesses illegally in the UK and for other immigration offences.
Steps are being taken to deport 11 of the detainees, the press release said.
''A case against the other nine remains pending, so their deportation issue is not finalised yet," a British High Commission official told The Daily Star.
The release quoted UK Immigration Minister Damian Green as saying, ''The UK Border Agency has been tasked with conducting intensive law enforcement activities on illegal immigrants. We stand firm to make it harder than ever before for them to come here.''
Public services, businesses and local communities have become burdened with illegal immigrants, but the country cannot afford it, added the minister.
''That's why the border agency is working to reduce illegal employment, sham marriages, and organised offences by immigrants who live in the UK illegally,'' he said.
An employee or worker will be penalised up to £10,000 or an estimated Tk 10,84,500 if he or she is found staying illegally, the release said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh said illegal workers are deported from the UK regularly. It is nothing new.
''Unofficially, there are an estimated 5 lakh British of Bangladeshi parentage,'' said a ministry official, ''Besides, around 40,000 Bangladeshi students are studying in Britain.''