Sky News: Many Nigerians Left Destitute, Without Jobs after Travelling to UK

Many Nigerians have been left destitute after paying agents huge amount of money to travel to the UK on skilled workers’ visa only to find out there was no job for them, a report has revealed.

Blessing (not her real name), told Sky News that she arrived in the UK three months ago, adding that she paid an agent in Nigeria £10,000 to arrange a job as a carer in the UK. But when she got there, she found there was no work for her.

Also, the Sky News investigation showed that the skilled worker visa system was being abused

“I should be in a position of helping, not receiving aid,” says one Nigerian woman.

Fraught with emotion and speaking anonymously in the narrow corridor of a food bank, the report disclosed that Blessing was now destitute despite being promised a job in Britain.

It showed that the skilled worker visa system was being abused with middlemen allegedly being paid huge sums of money to arrange jobs in the UK as carers that do not exist.

“Many of those who can’t get work are struggling to survive, turning to food banks and even sleeping rough. Blessing is now reliant on handouts,” it added.

At a food bank in a Nigerian Community Centre in Greater Manchester, the report stated that she was given a shopping bag of basic supplies, “the shelves and crates are packed with donations of bread, cereal, tinned tomatoes and familiar African items like palm oil and beans.”

Blessing said: “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. I don’t feel happy about it.

“It makes me feel I’m less of a person. I should be in a position of helping not receiving aid because this is not who I was back in my country. It makes me feel as though I’m a fool.”

According to Sky News, “Blessing asked us not to contact the British company which sponsored her for fear of repercussions – but showed us her passport and other documents supporting her account of what happened.”

When asked why she didn’t make the application herself, she said, “i would have done it myself but there are so many frauds on the internet (in Nigeria) you don’t know what’s real.”

Blessing said she knows others who have skilled worker visas only to get to the UK to find there was no work waiting for them.

She sighed: “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.”

Mary Adekugbe, the founder of the Nigerian Community Centre in Rochdale, said those on skilled worker visas now needing support was a big issue increasing her workload – something she described as “shameful.”

About 15 of the 35 to 40 people “who generally come to the weekly food bank have skilled worker visas,” she said.

“We are overwhelmed, people are desperate. It’s so worrying,” she added.

She paints a picture of those she had seen: “A grown-up man crying like a baby. Children crying without food because their parents can’t work to support them. No houses. No job. This is alarming.”

According to the report, some of them sold everything they had to make the journey.

Community volunteer Jones Adekube said: “Last week we gave her bread and tuna because that’s what she can eat easily without cooking or warming.”

At a foodbank at a Nigerian Community Centre in Greater Manchester the shelves and crates are packed with donations of bread, cereal, tinned tomatoes and familiar African items like palm oil and beans.

Now homeless, the lady on the bus was yet another person who paid an agent in Nigeria to arrange care work in the UK, Sky News revealed.

Mr. Adekube added: “She did some work when she came in. Initially they gave her one shift a week which is 12 hours a week. As time went on there were no shifts.

“According to what she showed us she was offered a full-time job as a carer. And now she’s sleeping on the bus.”

He adds: “She’s in a bad way. She can’t go back home. She has nothing at home. She sold everything she had. It’s not been easy’

It also revealed that another couple Allen and Joyce (not real names), travelled to the UK with their young son.

“We’ve changed their names but they showed us documents which prove they’re in the UK on skilled worker visas.

“Joyce says she was also promised work as a carer and Allen was able to accompany her because he is classed as her dependent,” the report added.

Allen was quoted to have said: “It’s not been easy. I had to sell my car; sell my property, get a loan and took a lot of risk to raise the money.”

Under the terms of the skilled worker visa they can’t work in any other job category and are limited to 20 hours a week under another employer in the care sector.

Often, home care providers require access to a car, and permanently switching sponsors is almost impossible.

Joyce said: “It’s very difficult because most jobs you want to get – they will first of all tell you that you’ve got a sponsor from somewhere else.

So maybe you should go back to that place to get your job. That’s what they always say.

“We are begging the (UK) government if they can look into it, even if it is not skilled work, if they can give us another sponsorship or any other work, we are ready to do. For our survival.”

Over 170,000 skilled worker visas issued in a year

In the 12 months to March 2023, 170,993 skilled worker visas have been awarded. In the health and care sector alone, grants have increased over two and a half times and represent over half of all work visas issued in the same period.

On the job with the lowest entry requirement – care workers and home carers – 40,416 people were awarded visas in the year to March 2023.
Moin Uddin Khan, who owns the large Al-Falah Supermarket in Bradford, said people are always coming in asking for work – predominantly people who have come on skilled worker visas.

The shop manager, Anhar Ali, said some applicants never had any intention of working as carers in the first place – the job they were sponsored for as a condition of coming into the country.

“Some of them are told before they arrive, ‘you won’t have a job, you’re only arriving here’. And they do pay a lot of money. It’s just a way to get to the UK,” he said.