Photo credit: BBC
Recruitment agents who scam foreign nationals applying to work in the UK care sector have been exposed by BBC secret filing.
Graphic Online reports that one of the rogue agents is a Nigerian doctor who has worked for the NHS in the field of psychiatry.
The Home Office has acknowledged the system is open to abuse. The BBC World Service’s investigation shows the apparent ease with which these agents can scam people, avoid detection, and continue to profit.
The agents’ tactics include:
X Illegally selling jobs in UK care companies
X Devising fake payroll schemes to conceal that some jobs do not exist
X Shifting from care to other sectors, like construction, that also face staff shortages
Reports of Immigration scams have increased since a government visa scheme – originally designed to let foreign medical professionals work in the UK- was broadened in 2022 to include care workers.
To apply for the visa, candidates must first obtain a “Certificate of Sponsorship” 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.
Dora-Olivia Vicol, the CEO of Work Rights Centre, a charity that helps migrants and disadvantaged people in the UK access employment justice, said, “The scale of exploitation under the Health and Care Work visa is significant.
“I think it has turned into a national crisis.”
According to her, there is “systemic risk inherent” in the sponsorship system, because it “puts the employer in a position of incredible power” and has “enabled this predatory market of middlemen 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 for global opportunities catering to young Africans, claiming to have 9,800 “happy clients”.
Since he believed the BBC undercover journalist was well-connected in the UK care sector, Dr Alaneme tried to recruit her to become an agent for his business, saying it would be very lucrative.
He said, “Just get me care homes. I can make you a millionaire.”
The journalist was then given unprecedented insight into how immigration scams by agents like Dr Alaneme actually work. Dr Alaneme said he would pay £2,000 for each care home vacancy she was able to procure and offered £500 commission on top.
He then said he would sell the vacancies to candidates back in Nigeria.
Charging candidates for jobs is illegal in the UK.
BBC investigation found that Efficiency for Care employed an average of 16 people in 2022, and 152 in 2023. Meanwhile, a letter sent from the Home Office to the company dated May 2023 showed it had issued 1,234 Certificates of Sponsorship to foreign workers between March 2022 and May 2023.
But the company 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 its sponsorship license, it said. The matter is now in court.
In another secretly filmed meeting, Dr Alaneme shared an even more sophisticated scam involving sponsorship for jobs that did not exist.
He said the “advantage” of having a CoS that is unconnected to a job “is that you can choose any city you want”.
This is untrue. If a migrant arrives in the UK on a Health and Care Work visa and does not work in their assigned role, the visa could be canceled and they risk deportation.
The BBC also covertly investigated another UK-based recruitment agent, Nana Agyemang-Prempeh, after several people told the BBC they had collectively paid tens of thousands of pounds for care worker positions for their friends and family that, it transpired, did not exist.
They alleged that some of the CoS Mr Agyemang-Prempeh gave them had turned out to be fakes—replicas of real CoS issued by care companies.
BBC discovered Mr Agyemang-Prempeh had then begun offering to CoS for UK jobs in construction – another industry that allows employees to recruit foreign workers. He was able to set up his own construction company and obtain a sponsorship licence from the Home Office.
He was also not playing the game according to the rules
