According to reports, some Nigerians who paid con artists posing as United Kingdom (UK) skilled worker visa agents for fictitious jobs are now stranded in the UK.
According to a Sky News investigation, these job seekers paid these agencies significant sums of money to arrange their travel to the UK on skilled worker visas.
Blessing, one of the victims, whose name has been altered to protect her identity, revealed to the media on the cramped hallway of a food bank that despite being promised a job, she is today homeless in the UK.
She claimed to have paid someone she referred to as a “agent” in Nigeria £10,000 to set up a job when she said she first arrived in the UK three months ago. When she arrived in the country, she found out, however, that there was no job for her.
Blessing, who now depends on handouts from a food bank in Nigeria, claimed she did not submit the application herself because it is challenging to distinguish between genuine and false in that country.
She said;
“It makes me feel as though I’m a fool. I would have done it myself but there are so many frauds on the internet [in Nigeria] you don’t know what’s real.
“I’ve always provided for myself. I’m a very hard-working, diligent person. So for me to be here depending on people to eat, coming to the food bank to get food, isn’t ok with me.
“There are so many. Dozens. I met a lot here and so many are still coming after I’ve come. There’s a big scam going on.”
The founder of the Nigerian Community Centre in the Greater Manchester borough of Rochdale, Mary Adekugbe, told Sky News that the recent expansion has overwhelmed her.
She said;
“About 15 of the 35-40 people who generally come to the weekly food bank have skilled worker visas. We are overwhelmed, people are desperate. It’s so worrying.”
The UK government costs between £625 and £1,423 for a skilled worker visa, depending on the applicant’s location and intended length of stay. There is also a £624 yearly healthcare fee and a £1,270 availability requirement for the applicant to demonstrate their ability to maintain themselves in the UK.
Direct applications to the UK government are required, along with supporting documentation, from interested parties.
According to the UK Home Office, health and care workers accounted for 86% of long-term sponsored work visas awarded and more than half of all work visas granted to applicants in 2022.
