An Oban takeaway owner claims staff no longer want to work for him following a Home Office raid on his premises.
Shaukat Chaudry, 55, said four of his five workers were detained by the Home Office after a raid on Kebabish last Friday.
Officers arrived at around 7pm as the business was preparing food for customers.
The Pakistan-born workers were interviewed for an hour by “14 officers”, and one was taken to a detention centre. He was later released on bail.
Mr Chaudry told The Daily Record that all four men have the legally required visas and permits to work at his takeaway.
Staff were ‘terrified’ following the raid on the Oban takeaway business
In a statement, the Home Office said three of the four had been released, while a fourth person was on bail.
It is the second time the popular Kebabish shop on George Street has been raided by the Home Office.
It is understood that four businesses in the town were raided last Friday.
Mr Chaudry told The Daily Record: “I am planning to leave Oban. There is no place left for me and my staff are so terrified they don’t want to work here.”
“Our five staff were treated very disrespectfully.“
The staff members were interviewed for more than an hour.
One worker was taken to Dungagel immigration removal centre.
He said: “I have great concern about this raid because our self-respect was badly hurt.
“There were these 14 people walking everywhere, my staff are so scared, so terrified now, they are mostly in their 20s and they don’t want to work here.”
He claimed the business had lost up to £2,000 in trade.
“They handled it very, very badly,” he said. “They could have come in and simply asked for information – all the details are with the Home Office.
“It’s very embarrassing, we are not criminals, we are not drug dealers.”
‘Lost the respect of the town’
Mr Chaudry feels that as a result of the raid, he as lost the respect of people in Oban.
He said: “I don’t want to stay in Oban anymore, the way we were treated, with customers standing inside, customers standing outside, all the people from the neighbouring shops, what respect do I have left?”
Customer Mhari Bryce was picking up a curry at the time of the raid.
She said: “It is absolutely disgraceful that this has happened to people who have the correct paperwork to be in the UK.
“The manager of the business looks out for his staff and runs an excellent business in the town.
“This was heavy-handed and has frightened the workers.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “To ensure any level of disruption caused by the enforcement visit was kept to a minimum, another member of staff was taking online orders to allow the business to operate while officers were within the premises.”