Our broken immigration system is endangering our high streets

Telegraph

11-04-2025

For years, 'fronts' have been operating in high streets across Britain in open sight – arousing much local suspicion but usually facing little to nothing in the shape of law-enforcement action.
This is not simply an inner-city phenomenon – it is one that has affected towns such as Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
However, there are signs that times are changing, with the National Crime Agency (NCA) launching 'Operation Machinize' – the first co-ordinated action of its kind by police, tax and immigration inspectors, and Trading Standards officers.
Recently in Shrewsbury the latter witnessed West Mercia police officers batter down the back door of a barber shop and detain two men who were Kurdish asylum seekers.
The police force revealed that its intelligence has led it to believe that the establishment was associated with illegal immigration, drug dealing, and the sale of illicit cigarettes and vapes.
Detective Inspector Daniel Fenn, from West Mercia Police's Economic Crime team, said some barber shops have claimed income of £100,000 to £150,000 a month, but simply don't command the number of customers to back up this level of income generation - an all too familiar across Britain.
Speaking on the NCA's 'Operation Machinize', which aims to crack down on money-laundering fronts, security minister Dan Jarvis spoke of how high-street crime 'undermines our security, our borders, and the confidence of our communities'.
But it is much deeper than that. Britain's illegal immigration complex – incorporating 'fronts' for international criminal gangs which often take the shape of Turkish-style barbers, vape shops, and mini-marts – threatens to rip apart the social fabric of modern Britain.
All this fuels resentment among established law-abiding communities which have seen their high streets descend into criminality – being taken over by international criminal enterprises who have reconverted these dilapidated and run-down areas into hubs of money-laundering activity.
Town-centre disintegration has been a gift for exploitative gangs who have been provided with a steady supply of illegal migrants due to Britain's dysfunctional border-security system.
Far stronger prison sentences need to be introduced and given to those who profit from Britain's illegal-immigration complex – including people smugglers and human traffickers, exploitative gang-leaders who knowingly employ illegal migrants, and unscrupulous landlords who house them in overcrowded and unsanitary properties.
Additional punishments should be given in cases of modern slavery.
While the British high street has suffered in the era of online shopping, the Labour Government should consider town-centre regeneration as an integral part of its economic policy.
Revitalising high streets is not an easy task – but it must start with the crackdown on fronts of illegal activity.
After that, improving public transport links, creating hybrid spaces, and fostering community ownership should all be part of an ambitious agenda to revive the high street into places of ethical commerce, social purpose, and civic pride.