As Victor Meldrew would say " l don't believe it " ::)

Tell me l'm not the only one that thinks the UK is going down the plug-hole.

Immigrant spot checks: Equality watchdog investigatesImmigration raids on 1 August 2013 Immigration enforcement officers arrested 139 suspected illegal immigrants on Thursday

Immigration spot checks at railway stations across the country are to be investigated by the equality watchdog for possible unlawful discrimination.

This follows reported complaints that the checks, carried out on Thursday, targeted people based on ethnicity.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it would examine the powers used and their "justification".

Immigration Minister Mark Harper denied the checks used racial profiling. He said they were based on intelligence.

A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it would also "ask questions about the extent to which the Home Office complied with its public sector equality duty" when vans were sent around London encouraging illegal immigrants to "go home".

As well as the spot checks at transport hubs, there were raids on workplaces on Thursday.

A Home Office spokesman said there were a total of 160 arrests, 21 of which were at stations in London.

The other 139 suspected illegal immigrants and rogue employers were arrested at locations across the country including London, Durham, Manchester, Wales and Somerset.

'Reasonable suspicion'

The Home Office said there had been 228 immigration street operations since 2008 and there were 9,000 arrests in the past year for suspected immigration abuse.

An EHRC spokesman said it was writing to the Home Office about the checks at transport hubs.

He said the EHRC "will be examining the powers used and the justification for them, in order to assess whether unlawful discrimination took place".