Home Office seize illegal workers from Romania at Dome supercasino

13 April 2012

Immigration officials have raided the site of the new supercasino being built at the Dome and seized illegal foreign workers employed on the controversial project.

The workers had used fake documentation to get jobs on the 7,000sq metre site where a Las Vegas-style casino is being built.

Nineteen men - 16 of them from Eastern Europe - were detained, but dozens more are said to have escaped after a tip-off.

It is the latest controversy to hit AEG, the entertainment company run by American billionaire Philip Anschutz, which has started construction work on the casino before it has even been awarded a gambling licence.

And it is a huge embarrassment for Ministers who claimed the casino project would provide locals in the Greenwich area of South-East London with jobs - particularly at a time of mounting national concern over the rate of immigration from Eastern European countries.

The Home Office has raided the casino site twice since April, most recently last month. Officials held 12 Romanians, three Indians, two Ukranians, one Armenian and one worker from the former Republic of Yugoslavia. All were in Britain illegally and had used forged National Insurance numbers to get work.

Last night, staff on the site described how workers had fled when the officers arrived.

"The Home Office guys sat by the Dome entrance, but there was an Eastern European guy at the exit to North Greenwich Tube station waving everyone away,' said one English builder.

"One of the guys had got a phone call about the raids at 6.30am so he rang everyone he knew and they got someone to stand outside the Tube station telling other illegal workers to turn round or they would be caught.

"The Home Office should raid this place every week. If they had come at 10am and locked the doors with everyone inside they would have caught a lot more."

Last week, undercover investigators visited the Dome, now known as the O2, and found that the concrete floor of the gaming area was finished, the walls of the two-storey complex had been erected and the steel roof was close to completion. Workers have even received plans saying "O2 Casino Roof' - raising questions about why Mr Anschutz appears so confident of receiving a gaming licence ahead of seven other shortlisted competitors.

The Casino Advisory Panel, which will make the decision, started hearings into the Dome's bid only last week.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been reprimanded for failing to declare a two-day visit last year to Mr Anschutz's Colorado ranch, where he received his now-infamous gift of a cowboy outfit.

It was revealed last week that AEG had concocted a 'dodgy dossier' which claimed religious leaders in Greenwich supported the bid - when they actually had grave reservations that it would lead to a rise in problem gambling and family breakdown. David Campbell, AEG Europe's president and chief executive, later apologised for the 'mistake'.

Last night, Nigel Fletcher, the Conservative culture spokesman on Greenwich Council, said the use of illegal workers to build the casino gave the lie to Government promises that it would benefit local people.

When the deal with AEG was signed in 2002, Lord Falconer, then Minister for the Dome, said that it would 'bring in up to 20,000 jobs'. More recently, Mr Prescott boasted that it would boost the local economy. But Mr Fletcher said: "The stated aim of the project was to create local jobs, so if they are actually going to illegal workers that is very worrying."

Questions were also raised last night about the role of Kate Garvey, Tony Blair's former special adviser, who left Downing Street nine months ago for a job at Freud Communications - the PR company which is representing AEG. Ms Garvey is the head of public and social affairs at the company and a board member.

Mr Fletcher said that Ms Garvey's role added to the impression that 'the selection process is not entirely above board'.

Calls last night to AEG about the immigration raids were referred to Freud, where a spokesman said: "AEG Europe employs Sir Robert McAlpine as the construction contractors for the site. We expect them to ensure that those employed have the appropriate credentials."

McAlpine did not return calls.

The Freud spokesman added that Ms Garvey had not been involved with the AEG account and had not discussed the company at board level.

A Home Office source said that a majority of the illegal workers had been removed from the country, and officials were seeking to remove the remaining workers.

A spokesman said: "The Government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to be here."

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