Immigration officials and military police swooped on a huge redevelopment site in Colchester.

Swoop - part of the huge redevelopment site at Colchester Garrison. (46536-1)

A spokesman for the Immigration Service, which was behind the operation, said a total of 11 men and a woman were arrested in the operation at the site next to Colchester Garrison.

The woman, from the Ukraine, has been removed from the country since the operation.

The men, a Romanian, a Ukrainian, a Sri Lankan, four from Kosovo, three from Nepal and one from Ghana, are all still under investigation, the spokesman confirmed.

It is understood that the men were caught by immigration officials working as labourers on the multi-million pound Garrison redevelopment project next to the military barracks.

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) Police spokesman confirmed today that it had been involved in the operation.

It was not known which company the immigrants were working for at the time of their detention, but the Home Office said that it co-operated fully with the investigation.

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Published Wednesday, November 30, 2005

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