The announcement came soon after a series of dawn raids let UKBA smash a £1m benefit and immigration scam.
The Home Office said: `Around 50 officers from the UK Border Agency, Metropolitan Police and other agencies targeted eight addresses across the Forest Gate area of east London.
`Officers believe the alleged scam was operated by a ringleader who deliberately brought foreign nationals into the UK in an attempt to defraud the UK benefit system’.
Chief Immigration Officer Jon Bradbourne, from the UK Border Agency’s London Immigration Crime Team, said: 'The message to those who seek to break the law in London is clear - we now have a formidable team specialising in immigration related criminality. We will investigate most rigorously those people who seek to abuse the hospitality of the UK and commit crime.
'The arrest of this group is a result of close collaboration between a number of agencies.'
Announcing more raids, the Home Office said: `The operation resulted in the arrest of two men and six women on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law and obtaining benefits and passports by deception.
Those arrested, aged between 18 and 48, are now in police custody pending further investigations. Among the items recovered were a number of fake passports and about £1,600 in cash. More raids are due to take place in the next few days’.
You also have time till 6th October to have your say on family migration.
The UK Border Agency says its public consultation on reforms to work routes, including routes that lead to settlement, Tier 5 and overseas domestic workers, continues till Friday 9th September.
The UKBA says the consultation sets out the government's proposals for breaking the link between temporary and permanent migration.
Under the proposals, migrants coming to the UK to work on temporary visas will no longer be able to apply for settlement.
The key proposals include: re-branding Tier 2, the skilled worker route, as temporary, ending the assumption that settlement will be available for those who enter on this route;
Allowing certain categories of Tier 2 migrant, such as those earning over £150,000 or occupations of a specific economic or social value to the UK, to retain an automatic route to settlement;
Creating a new category into which, after 3 years in the UK, the most exceptional Tier 2 migrants may switch and go on to apply for settlement;
Allowing Tier 2 migrants who do not switch into a settlement route to stay for a maximum of 5 years, with the expectation that they and any dependants will leave at the end of that time;
Introducing an English language requirement for adult dependants of Tier 2 migrants applying to switch into a route to settlement;
Restricting the maximum period of leave for Tier 5 temporary workers to 12 months;
And closing or reforming routes for overseas domestic workers.
Till date, the UKBA has received nearly 10,000 responses.
