Secret Filming Reveals Brazen Tactics of Visa Sponsorship Scammers

Recruitment Agents Who Scam Foreign Nationals Applying To Work In The UK Care Sector Have BebC Secret Filming.

One of the Rogue Agents is a Nigerian Doctor Who has worked for The NHS in The Field of the Field.

The Home Office has been acknowled to open to abuse, but the BBC World Service’s Investigation Shows the Apparent Ease with the Apparent Ease, Avoid Detection, And Continue to Profit.

Our Secret Filming Reveals Agents’ Tactics, Including:

• Illegally Selling Jobs in Uk Care Companies
• Devising Fake Payroll Schemes to Conceal That Some Jobs do Not exist
• Shifting From Care to Other Sectors, Like Construction, That Also Face Staff Shortages

Reports of Immigration Scams Have an increased Since A Government Visa Scheme – Originally Designed to Foreign Professions Work In The UK – Was Broadened in 2022 to Care Workers.

To Apply For The Visa, Candidates Must First Obtain A “Certificate of Sponsorship” (COS) From a UK Employer Who is Licensed by The Home Office. It is The Need For Cos Documents That is Being Exploited by Rogue Relocation Agents.

“The Scale of Exploitation is Significant,” Says Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of Work Rights Center, A Charity That Migrant And Disadvantaged People In The UK Access Employment Justice.

“I Think It has turned into a national crisis.”

She Says There Is “Systemic Risk Inherent” In The Sponsorship System, “Puts The Incredible Position Of Power” and Has “enabled this Predatory Market to Mushroom to Mushroom”.

The BBC sent Two Undercover Journalists to Approach Relocation Agents Working in the UK.

One Met Dr Kelvin Alaneme, a Nigerian Doctor and Founder of the Agency, Careeredu, Based in Harlow, Essex.

His website States His Business Is A “Launchpad Global Opportunities Catering to Young Africans”, Claiming to 9,800 “Happy Clients”.

Believing The BBC UK Well Connected in the Uk Care Sector, Dr Alaneme Tried to Recruit Her to Become An Agent, Saying It Would Be Very Lucrative.

“Just get me home homes. I can make you a Millionaire,” He said.

As a Potential Business Partner, OUR Journalist Was Given Unpretented Insight Intight Intightened How Immigration Scams Like Dr Alaneme Actually Work. Dr. Alaneme Said He Would be a Top at the EACH Care Home Vacancy, and Offered £ 500 ($ 650) to top on Commission.

Hey Said He Would the Vacancies to Candidates Back in Nigeria.

Charging candidates for a job is Illegal in the Uk.

“They (The Candidates) Are Not Supposed to Be Paying Because It’s. It Should Be Free,” He Said, Lowering His Voice.

“They Are Paying Because They Know It’s Most Likely The Only Way.”

The BBC Begu Investigating Him Following A Series Of Online Compaints About His Relocation Services.

Praise – From South-East Nigeria and in His Mid 30s – Was One Of Those Who Complained, Claiming He Paid Dr. Alaneme More Than £ 10,000 ($ 13,000) for A Job In The Uk. Hey Says He Was Was Was To Be Working With Care Company Called Efficiency for Care, Based in Clacton-On-Sea. It’s Only When Arrived That He Realised The Job didn’t exist.

“IF I Had Known there was No Job, I Would Have Not Come Here,” Hey Says. “At Least Home in Nigeria, If You Go Broke, I Can Find My Parenters and Go and Eat Free Food. It’s Not The Same Here. You Will Go Hungry.”

Praise Says He Messaged Efficiency for Months For Care and Dr Alaneme, When He Could Start Working. Despite Promises Of Assistance From Dr Alaneme, The Job Never Materialised. Almost A Later, HE Found with Another Care Provider Willing To Sponsor Him to Remain In The UK.

Our Investigation Found Employed for Efficiency – 16 People in 2022, and 1523. Workers Between March 2022 and May 2023.

Efficiency for Care’s Sponsorship License was reviewed in July 2023. The Care Company Can No Longer Recruit Abroad, But Continues to Operate.

It Told The BBC It Strongly Refutes The Allegation It Colluded With Dr Alaneme. It Said It Believed It Lawfully Recruited Staff From Nigeria and Other Countries. It has challenged the home office’s revocation of sponsorship Licence, It Said, and The Matter is Now in Court.

Another Secretly Filmed Meeting, Dr. Alaneme Shared An Even More Sophisticated Scam Involving Sponsorship Documents for Jobs That Don’t exist.

Hey Said The “Advantage” of Having a cos That is unconnected to a job “is that you can choose any city you want.”

“You can go to glasgow. You can stay in London. You can Live Anywhere,” He Told Us.

This is not true. IF A Migrant Arrives on a Health and Care Work Visa And Does Not Working Role Those Have Been Assigned, Their Visa Could Be Cancelled And They Risk Being Deported.

In The Secret Filming, Dr. Alaneme Also Described How to Set Up A Fake Payroll System to Mask The Fact The Jobs Not Real.

“That (A Money Trail) Is What The Government Needs To See,” He said.

Dr. Alaneme Told He strenuously Denied Services Offered by Careered Were A Scam Or That It acted as A Recruitment OR Provided Jobs for Jobs. He Said His Company Only Offered Legitimate Services, Adding That The Money Praise Gave Him Was Passed On To A Recruitment Agent for Praise’s Transport, Accommodation and Training. Hey Said He Offered to Help Praise Find Another Free Employer Charge.

The BBC Also Caried Another UK-Based Recruitment Agent, Akwasi Agyemang-Prempeh, After Several People People Had Tenses of Thousands of Pounds for Their Friends And Family, It Transpired, Did Not exist.

They Said SOME OF CERTORSHIP Of Sponsorship Mr Agyemang-Prempeh Gave Had Turned Out to Be Fakes – Replicas of Real Cos Issued by Care Companies.

We Discovered Mr Agyemang-Prempeh Had Then Begun Offering Cos for UK Jobs in Construction – Another Industry That Allows Employers To Recruit Foreign Workers. Hey Was Was Up His Own Construction Company and Obtain A Sponsorship Licence From The Home Office.

Our Journalist, Posing A UK-Based Ugandan Businessman Businessman Wanting to Bring Ugandan Construction Workers Over to Join Him, Asked Mr Agyemang-Prempeh IF THIS WAS POSSIBLE.

He replied It Was – for the Price Of £ 42,000 ($ 54,000) for Three People.

Mr Agyemang-Prempeh Told Usped Moved Into Construction Rules Are Being “Tightened” in The Care Sector – And Claimed Agents Were Eyeing Industries.

“People Are Now Diverting to It,” Mr Agyemang-Prempeh Told The Undercover Journalist.

More than 470 licenses in the Uk Care 2022 and December 2022.

Mr Agyemang-Prempeh Later Asked For A Downpayment For Sponsorship, which The BBC Did Do Not Make.

The Home Office has now revoked His Sponsorship Licence. Mr Agyemang-Prempeh’s Defense, When Challenged by The BBC, Was Hadelf Been Duped by other agents and did not realise HE was seling fake cos documents.

In A Statement to the BBC, The Home Office It Has “Robust New Action Employers Who Abuse The Visa System” and Will “Ban Businesses Who Flout UK Employment Laws From Sponsoring Overseas Workers”.

BBC Investigations Have Previously Uncovered Similar Visa Scams Targeting People in Kerala, Indiaand International Students Living in the Uk Who Want To Work In The Care Sector.

In November 2024, The Government Announced a clampdown on “Rogue” Employers Hiring Workers Overseas. Additionally, from 9 April, Care Providers in England Will Be Required to Prioritize Recruiting International Care Workers in the UK Before Recruiting From Overseas.

Investigation Team: Olaronke Alo, Chiagoa Maguire, Nyasha Michelle, and Chiara Francavilla