A DECISION about the future of a restaurant where three illegal immigrants were found working will be postponed.

The Home Office conducted a raid at Jaflong on Bicester’s Market Square on October 11 last year.

Three people were found to be working illegally at the restaurant when immigration officers arrived.

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At a meeting this morning, Cherwell District Council’s licensing committee decided to adjourn a decision about whether the restaurant should have its licence renewed.

Restaurant owner Shakur Ali was unable to attend the meeting due to illness.

His son Dewar spoke on his behalf and said his dad had become ill over the last week, and was susceptible to illness following an operation last year.

In a letter to the committee he said: “I apologise for my father being unable to attend today. He has been unwell for a while and isn’t able to travel.”

The committee agreed it would be in the public interest for the meeting to be adjourned to a later date, and set April 9 at 10am as the new date.

The committee was not given any advice by council officers about whether Jaflong should lose its licence, but the Home Office recommended that the council close it down.

According to a report from the Home Office, the three men were all paid below the minimum wage for their work.

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One earned £120 working six days a week as a chef, another was paid £25 a shift as a chef working five days a week, and the third earned £10 a shift as a kitchen porter.

A sweep of the building also revealed a courtyard full of pigeons and bird droppings which opened into the kitchen.

There were also fire doors missing handles upstairs, no apparent smoke detectors, and eight beds spread across the first and second floors.

In the cellar food was discovered among rubble, as the walls of the cellar had been knocked through into the rooms under neighbouring properties.

The Home Office said new conditions on the licence would be unlikely to lead to changes in how the restaurant was run.