An immigration raid at a celebrity-loved Indian restaurant in Surrey where officers were said to have scaled walls and blocked off access to the toilets has been likened to Nazi Germany.
Eleven uniformed officers wearing stab vests surrounded Mandira’s Kitchen in the Surrey Hills following a ‘tip off’ before separating staff and quizzing them.
No offences were found, nor any arrests made during the hour-long visit, which was made in front of customers.
Owner Mandira Sakar criticised the tactless approach, with one employee being asked to confirm details about his 11-year-old child.
‘They just barged in there, and they caught hold of people and said, “show your papers”. It’s a bit like Nazi Germany,’ the entrepreneur told the Daily Mail.
Mandira’s restaurant in the Surrey Hills has previously won high praise from celebrity chefs Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver.
She also starred on Channel 4 series Aldi‘s Next Big Thing in 2022.
The response by Surrey Police and immigration officers was branded by MP for Godalming and Ash Sir Jeremy Hunt as ‘heavy-handed’.
Eleven uniformed officers wearing stab vests surrounded Mandira’s Kitchen in the Surrey Hills following a ‘tip off’ before separating staff and quizzing them
Officers can be seen in CCTV footage stooping beneath a wooden rail fence, as others surround the building
Sir Jeremy described it as a ‘distressing experience’ for staff and has since contacted Surrey Police chief constable Tim De Meyer.
Officers can be seen in CCTV footage marching in a line along a road towards the restaurant in Silent Pool, Albury.
They then split into teams, with three stooping beneath a wooden rail fence, as others surround the building.
Mandira, who opened the business in 2019, did not want to speculate on who had provided the ‘tip-off’, but directed her fury instead at police and immigration officers.
‘They could have checked all of this [before they came], and the fact is, nobody asked us as a business for anything,’ she said.
The raid was carried out on September 17 under Section 179 of the Licensing Act 2003. This gives immigration officers the power to enter licensed premises to ascertain whether any offences under the Immigration Acts are being committed in relation to the licensable activities.
But Mandira, who was in Tanzania during the time of the raid, accused the operation of being a ‘fishing expedition’.
The mother said: ‘So it was all sort of intrusive kind of questioning. And then after that, they basically, obviously, they couldn’t find anything, and they came into the cafe, we had customers, they blocked the toilets.
‘I think what also got my goat, which is quite a petty thing, but I did get very cross about it, is that we have free parking for our customers.
‘It’s a paid car park, you pay in the car park, and it’s not a very large amount, it’s £2, but if you spend some money with us, or you are a customer, then you get free parking.
‘And these guys had the cheek to actually come in and avail a free parking, which I got really cross about.
‘So, not only did they come in, they intimidated staff, used free parking, and then they disappeared.’
The response by Surrey Police and immigration officers was branded by MP for Godalming and Ash Sir Jeremy Hunt as ‘heavy-handed’
The raid was carried out on September 17 in front of customers under Section 179 of the Licensing Act 2003
Owner Mandira Sakar (pictured) criticised the tactless approach, with one employee being asked to confirm details about his 11-year-old child
The controversy from the visit has seen customers and locals rally around Mandira in support.
She said the small boat crisis, which Sir Keir Starmer has failed to get a grip on since he came to office, has blurred the boundaries between illegal immigrants and legal economic migrants.
‘Everybody’s almost seen as an illegal immigrant, rather than people who are here, who make Britain diverse, and who work here, and who are fully entitled to be here.
‘When you have something like this [happen], it shakes you.’
Mandira added: ‘There’s just so much of this political agenda, and it’s almost like normalised, that it’s absolutely fine in 2025 to walk into a business, to jump in there, to intimidate staff, to ask them questions, and to leave.
‘I think all of that is quite scary, because you are almost normalising something like this in 2025 Britain, which is quite astounding.’
She heaped praise on her young, diverse workforce for how they handled the situation that she described as being ‘very upsetting’.
‘What has quite frightened me is the manner in which it’s done, and the fact was that it’s almost normalised that if you employ a diverse workforce, then this is what it is, that somebody can come and just check you,’ she said.
‘Because your staff are brown in color.’
She added: ‘I think it’s actually a shame that people like me, who have never thought of race and never thought of what’s the color of somebody’s skin, is now seeing that. I think the fabric of the nation is beginning to fray.
‘I think what people have to realise, or what I think the nation probably needs to realise, is that we are economic migrants.
‘We are not illegal immigrants. I’ve come in here, I’ve built a business, I employ sixteen people, I contribute to the local economy, I’m very much entrenched in there.
‘But the thing about economic migrants is they can also leave.’
The Daily Mail asked Surrey Police what, if anything, the force had done to ascertain whether the tip-off was genuine, and if it would now issue an apology.
The force did not answer any of this newspaper’s questions, and instead said in a statement: ‘Surrey Police’s Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit and Immigration Enforcement complete intelligence-led visits to residential and commercial premises where suspected immigration and exploitation offences are taking place.
‘A joint visit took place at a business premises at an address on Shere Lane, Guildford on Wednesday, 17 September at 2.30pm to complete a routine licensing check under Section 179 of the Licensing Act 2003. No offences were identified.’
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
