THE director of an employment agency has called for tighter controls on foreign nationals after eight illegal immigrants were arrested last week at Hayden's Bakeries in Devizes.

Ken Kennedy, the director of the employment agency Workbase, which has an office in Devizes, says that documents can be too easily forged, leaving organisations such as his to pay the consequences.

Immigration officers, together with members of Wiltshire constabulary's Special Branch and Devizes Police, raided the factory on Hopton Industrial Estate shortly after the night shift began last Wednesday.

Eight people were detained five Brazilian men, two Kenyan women and one man from Kosovo. One of the Kenyan women had absconded from a detention centre near Heathrow Airport and the Kosovan man has made an application for political asylum.

They were taken to Chippenham Police Station where they were interviewed. All but the Kosovan man have now been sent out of Britain.

The police and the Home Office said that managers at Hayden's Bakeries had co-operated fully during the investigation and are not being held responsible.

The Home Office refused to say whether the immigration officers were working on information received or whether this case was a routine spot check.

Beyond commenting that the workers were not their direct employees, Hayden's, which employs 270 people at its Devizes plant, declined to answer any questions.

The eight detainees were among a group of temporary workers supplied by Workbase. Mr Kennedy said that the firm was at the mercy of those who turn up at its offices looking for work.

He said: "We collate as much information on our workers as possible. They have to fill out application forms and produce documents which have been approved by the Immigration Service. We work on guidance from the Immigration Service and if someone comes in with forged papers then that is not our problem. We have fulfilled our side of the bargain."

Mr Kennedy said that many firms in the county needed temporary staff for the unpopular night shifts that could not be filled by other means of recruitment.

He said: "It is very difficult for employers. We haven't the specific ability to detect fraud. It is up to the Government and the immigration authorities to make it more difficult for illegal aliens to operate in this country. If someone turns up at the office with the right documentation and asks for a job, we are not allowed to turn them away."

Devizes Job Centre manager Debbie Snook confirmed that job vacancies in the town were leaping ahead of unemployment figures.

A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that no action is to be taken against either Hayden's or Workbase.

Since the incident, Workbase has been working closely with the Immigration Service office in Bristol to tighten up procedures.

Mr Kennedy said: "We now have a hot line to the Bristol office so we can check if we think anything is incorrect. It is a good thing that it has been brought into the open like this."

Devizes MP Michael Ancram urged the Government to change asylum laws that allow people to disappear into the community and then work illegally.

The Conservative Party has been pressing for asylum seekers to be held in reception centres until their applications have been dealt with.

He said: "It is very difficult, given the current asylum laws, for companies to ascertain which people are in the country legitimately.

"The asylum system is in need of serious rationalisation so that those ineligible to work are not able to disappear, subsequently to apply for jobs.

"I call on the Government to listen to the arguments we have been making for the last three years."