A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered a makeshift encampment of around a dozen homeless delivery riders, mostly Sudanese migrants, living under a graffiti-covered railway bridge in Shoreditch, east London. The site, littered with rubbish and lacking running water or toilets, has left nearby residents unnerved, while the discovery raises questions about how riders without verified right-to-work status are able to secure jobs with firms such as Deliveroo and Gopuff despite stated document checks.

Reporters who visited the site over two consecutive days found tents, bicycles and turquoise Deliveroo satchels, with occupants cooking on a stove and storing belongings in a chest of drawers. A local resident, Emma O'Donnell, 42, described feeling frightened walking past the camp. The report notes that similar camps are emerging elsewhere in London, and cites figures showing more than one in ten couriers checked during a police immigration crackdown, Operation Equalise, were found working illegally last summer — 151 arrests from 1,482 checks, with at least 17 people deported. Deliveroo's website states that riders undergo document and criminal record checks before joining.