Foreign students duped in fake visa scam in UK

Recruitment agents, posing as legitimate middlemen, took advantage of international students seeking jobs in the country’s care sector.

• PRAMOD THOMAS
• 06 September, 2024

By: PRAMOD THOMAS

FOREIGN students have been duped out of tens of thousands of pounds for fake visa documents, leaving them unable to work in the UK, an investigation has revealed.

Recruitment agents, posing as legitimate middlemen, took advantage of international students seeking jobs in the country’s care sector, an investigation by the BBC revealed.

These students paid up to £17,000 each for sponsorship certificates that are supposed to be free of charge. However, when the students later applied for skilled worker visas, the Home Office rejected their applications due to invalid paperwork, the broadcaster reported.

According to the BBC, Taimoor Raza, a Pakistani national living in Wolverhampton and working in Birmingham, is at the top of one visa network. He allegedly sold 141 visa documents, most of which were worthless, for £1.2 million.

Raza denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have refunded some of the affected students. However, evidence suggested he rented offices in the West Midlands and recruited staff, assuring dozens of students he could secure jobs in care homes and provide the necessary employment sponsorship.

Initially, Raza is likely to have sold legitimate documents, and a small number of people were able to obtain genuine visas and jobs. However, the majority were left with invalid paperwork and lost their entire life savings.

The investigation traced the flow of funds from students to these criminal groups for over a year. The BBC found that many who arrived in the UK as students in 2022 and 2023 sought full-time employment due to record vacancies in the care sector, which had become a government priority.

With a surge in visa applications, job seekers needed a care home or agency to sponsor their visas, a process that should be free. However, the system has been exploited, with middlemen charging thousands of pounds to connect applicants with jobs. Despite paying these fees, none of the students the BBC spoke to received valid work visas or secured employment.

The broadcaster spoke to 17 men and women who each lost thousands of pounds trying to secure work visas. Three women in their 20s from India collectively spent £38,000 on these fraudulent services. Enticed by the dream of a better life and higher earnings in England, they ended up stranded, broke, and too ashamed to share their misfortune with their families back home, the report said.

An Indian student living in Birmingham recounted how her family, trusting her with their life savings, hoped for a brighter future in the UK. She invested £15,000 of her family’s money in her studies and then paid another £15,000 for what turned out to be invalid documents.

She went to a training agency in Wolverhampton to convert her student visa into a care worker visa. According to her, the agents were courteous and provided emails, letters, and visa copies to demonstrate their authenticity.

However, she said her life was destroyed by the fraudsters who remain free, without fear of repercussions. She is now penniless and too afraid to tell her family back home of her plight.

“My father-in-law was in the army, he trusted me with all his savings. The way in which they [agents] first meet us, it’s god-like. That’s how much they win over our trust,” she was quoted as saying. “I am trapped here [in England]. If I do return, all of my family’s savings would have been wasted.”

The UK’s care sector has long struggled with staff shortages, with a record 165,000 vacancies reported in 2022. In response, the government opened up the recruitment process to international applicants, drawing interest from countries such as India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. To secure a job, applicants need an eligible sponsor, such as a registered care home or agency, and the candidates should not have to pay for sponsorship.

However, this initiative created an opportunity for unscrupulous middlemen to exploit international students, many of whom made considerable efforts to remain in the UK legally. Now, these students face the risk of being sent back to their home countries with nothing to show for their efforts.

Nadia, a 21-year-old from India, came to the UK in 2021 on a student visa to study computer science. Faced with high tuition fees of £22,000 a year, she decided to look for work instead.

A friend connected her with an agent who promised to provide her with the necessary documents to work in the care sector for £10,000.

Trusting the agent, who apparently compared her to his own family members, Nadia paid him £8,000 upfront. After waiting six months for a document that claimed she had a job in a care home in Walsall, she discovered it was fake. When she contacted the care home directly, they confirmed they did not issue any sponsorship certificates and said they were fully staffed.

Nadia’s calls to the agent were then blocked, and although she was advised to go to the police, she admitted she felt too frightened to proceed.

The investigation revealed that Raza was a key player in this visa network. He collaborated with recruitment agencies in the West Midlands, claiming he could organise jobs in care homes and manage visa applications. Each individual paid between £10,000 and £20,000, amounting to £1.2 million.

The documents were sent as PDF files over WhatsApp to 141 students, and 86 were deemed invalid by the Home Office. Even among the 55 who received a visa, the care homes they were supposed to work for had no knowledge of them.

When contacted by the BBC, Raza – who has been in Pakistan since December 2023 – dismissed the allegations as “false and one-sided” and indicated he had sought legal counsel.

Ajay Thind, a student who paid Raza £16,000 for a care worker visa, later ended up working for him, assisting other students with their paperwork. Thind noted that Raza paid him and five others between £500-£700 a week for their work.

Raza took the team on an all-expensespaid trip to Dubai, seemingly to bolster morale and maintain loyalty. However, suspicions arose when visa applications started getting rejected by the Home Office, including those submitted by Thind’s friends, who had paid a total of £40,000.

According to the BBC, Raza was not working alone but was part of a broader, multi-layered operation resembling a pyramid scheme. Smaller agents, including hairdressers and bus drivers, were drawn into the scheme, possibly earning commissions for each successful referral.

Many victims have refrained from reporting their ordeal to the police, fearing repercussions from the Home Office. Instead, they have turned to community support, particularly from the Sikh temple Gurdwara Baba Sang Ji in Smethwick, West Midlands.

The temple’s Sikh Advice Centre has been at the forefront of efforts to help victims reclaim their money. It managed to get Raza to agree to refund some victims during a meeting in November 2023, and he has reportedly returned £258,000 to date. However, the centre has since handed over the cases to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Monty Singh, a representative of the Sikh Advice Centre, said they have been using social media to expose the fraudulent agents, hoping to deter others from falling into their traps. By naming and shaming those involved, the centre has been able to pressure some agents to return money to victims to avoid bringing shame to their families.

“Family honour means everything to an individual. We identify, investigate, look at all the evidence that is there,” Singh was quoted as saying.

“Once we’ve got that, we speak to the family. The shame it brings on them, they just want to repay the victim and clear their family name.”

Despite these community efforts, the Sikh Advice Centre has urged the police and immigration officials to take stricter action to curb this illegal trade in visas.

Jas Kaur, who works alongside Singh, stressed the need for the government to engage with community leaders to understand the reality on the ground and prevent such scams from proliferating.

Singh pointed out, “The success stories of a few do not guarantee the same outcome for everyone.

“The allure of the British or American dream can often lead to harsh realities, and education is crucial to prevent further exploitation of vulnerable individuals.”

While official data on the number of victims is not available, it is evident that the problem is widespread and impacts many lives. The Sikh Advice Centre is now expanding its efforts to reach more temples and communities, as well as raising awareness in countries like India about the dangers of moving abroad for work or study.

Applications for UK work visas have surged, with more than 26,000 submitted between June 2022 and June 2023, up from just 3,966 the year before. In response, the Home Office tightened rules in July 2023, barring international students from applying for work visas before finishing their studies.

Luke Piper, head of immigration at the Work Rights Centre, called for the government to provide a safe environment for victims to report fraud without fear of reprisal. He stressed the need to address the structural issues that allow frauds to exploit vulnerable students.

He said, “These fraudsters are devastating lives, not just in the West Midlands, but across the entire country. We have seen variations of this problem across the UK – in the southwest, Manchester, Yorkshire, and particularly in London.

“It is life-ruining – people have lost everything to these scams.”

Piper added: “People have their own reasons for making such choices, but the way the care market is currently, with a high demand for workers and many vacancies, scammers are exploiting these opportunities. They present them as promising options, and in some cases, they push people into them.

“However, many genuinely want to work in the care sector because it is rewarding.”

He also addressed the question of trust, which is central to these scams. “The heart of this issue is knowing who to trust. Often, people rely on good faith, a recommendation from a friend, or something similar,” Piper said.

“Unfortunately, that’s how these scammers operate – they embed themselves in communities, making it difficult for people to discern who is legitimate.”

The Home Office said, “We have stringent systems in place to identify and prevent fraudulent visa applications.

“Anyone targeted by these scams should know that if their sponsorship certificate is not genuine, the application will not succeed. We will continue to take strong action against any companies or agents found to be exploiting or defrauding overseas workers, and those operating unlawfully may face prosecution.”

It also confirmed that, in practice, over 900 care homes and agencies have had their sponsorship licenses for international workers revoked or suspended. Additionally, a new visa rule in March 2024 has increased the minimum salary requirements, and care workers are now restricted from bringing dependents under the skilled worker visa route.