EIGHT people were arrested after the UK Border Agency and police targetted squatters in Acton.
Polish nationals between the ages of 29 and 42 were rounded-up after officers descended on a property in Dordrecht Road.
Six were arrested for the new offence of squatting in a residential property. One man was detained for immigration offences and is now being held by the UK Border Agency, pending his removal from the UK.
Five others were served with immigration papers warning them that they now have to prove they are working, studying or self-sufficient in order to have a right to stay. If they cannot, they will also face removal.
Safer Neighbourhoods Officer PC James Clarke said: "The teams received information about the premises being used for squatting that had to be acted upon. We are committed to ensuring a thorough investigation and anyone identified as being involved in any wrong doing is held to account.”
He said that the raid, which took place on October 19, forms part of a wider plan to create a safer Ealing, help protect vulnerable people and reassure the wider community.
Assistant director Sarah Burton, from the UK Border Agency, said: “EU nationals who have been in the country for longer than three months generally have to be working, studying or self-sufficient in order to have a right to stay.
“If they are not, or don’t have a genuine prospect of doing so, the UK Border Agency expects them to return home. If they don’t we can and will enforce their removal.”
