POLICE and immigration officers swooped on a premises in Bournemouth town centre early today as part of a major operation to crack down on failed asylum seekers.

More than 50 officers from Dorset police and the Immigration Service raided the Hotel Windsurfer in West Cliff Road just after 5.30am.

The early morning raid was part of intelligence-led Operation Sartre by the Immigration Service and was aimed at targeting those who had been living in the borough illegally.

Officers searched the 22 rooms in the hotel, asking those inside for proof of identity.

Interpreters were on hand as immigration officers scanned each person's fingerprints to see if they matched those contained on a Home Office database.

Each person suspected of being in the country illegally was given the opportunity to pack a bag of belongings before leaving the hotel.

At least 10 men were arrested and taken to a reception centre elsewhere in the country.

They will be flown out on the next available flight to their home countries, which include Russia, Algeria, Poland and Kazakhstan.

Two of the hotel's residents were involved a road traffic collision on the Wessex Way shortly after the incident began.

A Home Office spokesman said: "At this stage we know one of them is an immigration offender and has been arrested and taken back to the police station."

Assistant director for the Immigration Service in the South West Paul Howcroft said he was very pleased with the operation's progress.

"The aim of the exercise is to enter the premises, identify anybody that should not be in the country, detain them and move them on to a reception centre and wait for the flights to remove them from the country," he said.

He added that Bournemouth did not have major issues concerning failed asylum seekers: "It is not a problem as far as we are aware in Bournemouth. It's no different from any other area.

"From the Immigration Service's point of view we would want to send a strong message to failed asylum seekers that we will work as hard as we can to find them and remove them."

A Home Office spokesperson added: "We want taxpayers on the street to know we are doing everything to get these people out of the country. We want to remove many more failed asylum seekers."