Seven face deportation after UK dawn raids

September 15, 2005

In dawn raids ordered by the UK Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, seven people have been detained in London and Greater Manchester.

The seven, who are believed to all be Algerian, are thought to include some of those allegedly involved in an earlier ricin poisoning plot.

The Home Secretary ordered the raids based on information provided by police and other security forces. Those seized may appeal against deportation, but are deemed a "threat to national security" by the Home Office. According to officials, those detained were done so using powers granted under the Immigration Act of 1971, not under the recently passed legislation aimed at removing radical muslim clerics from the country.