![Scams in the UK using work permit visas](https://dazzlingdawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Scams-in-the-UK-using-work-permit-visas.jpg)
There have been allegations of businesses like human trafficking using skilled worker visas in the UK. A Sky News investigation has revealed that there is a business of human trafficking using fake family members or spouses to bring in skilled workers. However, human trafficking from Bangladesh or the involvement of any Bangladeshi has not been found so far in this investigation.
Organized crime gangs are opening recruitment agencies to lure ordinary people to Britain with the promise of visas and jobs in the UK in exchange for huge sums of money. Later, according to the agreement, the husband, wife and children are arranged at the airport and claim to the British immigration at the airport in the UK that they are members of the same family. SkyNews reporter Lisa Holland reports that such fraud is going on.
A large proportion of skilled workers being brought to Britain are ineligible for skilled worker visas. According to Sky News video report, a woman claims she handed over £65,000 to an alleged recruitment ring in Sri Lanka to get a skilled worker visa to work in Britain as a care worker.
In the case of another woman, she came to London on a work visa and brought three others, posing as her husband and child.
The woman was not found later. But Sky News found the fake family. They found Ratha, a 48-year-old Sri Lankan rice farmer living in Staffordshire, West Midlands. Ratha claims he paid the agent £50,000 to take him to the UK. Promised a job and later allowed to apply for local residency.
The country's government opened the way to bring in skilled workers from abroad to deal with the massive labor shortage after Brexit. Skilled Worker visas were intended to attract workers with certain levels of skills to urgently fill labor shortages in various sectors. And using the opportunity of this visa, some gangs were formed. Recruiting brokers promise skilled worker visas with a path to permanent residency. Once lured, the money is extracted step by step by pressure in various ways.
Barrister Shuvagata Dey of Lexpert Solicitors in London told that taking money from an employer in the name of skilled worker, work permit or care visa is completely illegal. So-called recruiters who sell visas clearly intend to defraud. There is no alternative to being cautious about them.