According to a report by the BBC, a number of people suspected of working illegally at a Manchester’s Majid House knitwear manufacturing mill have been arrested during a raid by the UK Border Agency.  A total of 21 men and women believed to be of Pakistani and Afghan origin were arrested and are now being interviewed by officials regarding their immigration status.

According to the BBC, the UK Border Agency said a number of people in the building tried to hide on the roof and two men were found hiding inside cardboard packing boxes, which then had more boxes piled on top of them. Police officers and representatives from the Department of Work and Pensions, trading standards and the Health and Safety Executive were also involved in the operation, the report said.

Majid House has for some years housed between 20 and 30 small knitwear manufacturing businesses who supply the fast fashion knitwear wholesalers in UK and Europe.

Britain's high street fashion retailing giant Primark was at the centre of a row in January this year over allegations that illegal immigrants who were paid just over half the minimum wage had been employed to make fashionable knitwear for one of the company’s bestselling ranges at a factory in an adjacent building.

Read the BBC report