A shocking report to the Home Office reveals that 275 carer sponsorship certificates were issued to a non-existent care home.

An inquiry by former border and immigration inspector David Neal claims the Home Office has “limited” knowledge of the care sector after it was added to the UK’s shortage occupation list in 2022 – allowing more People come to Britain to fill the vacancies. Work.

As a result, it created a system that “invited large numbers of low-skilled workers to the country who were at risk of exploitation.”

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The report was released on Tuesday afternoon as MPs concluded parliamentary business from the Easter recess, alongside a report into Border Force operations at London City Airport.

During that inquiry, Mr Neal highlighted “failings at local, regional and national levels” regarding private jet arrivals, with Border Force staff failing to accommodate high-risk flights.

Figures on how many high-risk flights officers greet at the capital’s most central airport have been redacted, but Mr Neil said the figure was “shocking”, adding that the issue needed to be “addressed as an issue” by the Home Office. urgent”.

Mr Neil was sacked by the Home Office last month The department said he had “lost the trust” of Home Secretary James Cleverley after he leaked details of the City Airport report to a newspaper.

But now ex-inspector multiple complaints The Home Office was too slow to release critical reports against him, with 15 critical reports dating back to April 2023 still unpublished when he was sacked.

“Totally not enough”

In his report, titled “An examination of the immigration system linked to the social care sector”, Mr Neil criticized the department for “underestimating the need for carer visas”.

While the Home Office expects 6,000 to 40,000 people to apply through this route each year, between February 2022 and October 2023, 160,991 applications were made, of which 146,182 (91%) were approved.

The report criticized “the inappropriateness of its sponsor licensing regime for low-skilled roles” and said there was a “mismatch between its meager compliance officers and its growing roster of licensed sponsors” – one for every 1,600 employers officials – “totally not enough.”

In the case of an employer known only as “Company B,” the application was submitted using forged documents in the name of a real care provider, along with forged bank statements.

However, 275 certificates of sponsorship have been obtained, 181 of which have been allocated to workers, “none of whom have taken on a real role”, despite online checks showing “no trace” of a connection to the care home at the address they provided.

After the company was granted a sponsorship licence, it took Border Force officials more than two months to raise concerns about people arriving on visas.

In another example, a company stated when it obtained its sponsorship license that it had only four employees, yet the company received 1,234 certificates.

“In these two examples alone, up to 1,500 people may arrive in this country and work outside their visa conditions because of the risk of hardship or destitution,” Mr Neil said.

“While the inspection did not detail the extent of this abuse, during my inspection of illegal work enforcement, two of the eight enforcement visits they observed encountered migrants working illegally on care visas. [from] August to October 2023. “

“Dependent on handouts”

The report said those coming to work in the care sector “face long working hours and are not paid for travel time or given enough time to meet the minimum earnings thresholds set out in sponsor guidance and UK employment law” .

The inspector noted Sky News reportA carer paid £10,000 to an agent in Nigeria only to find there were no jobs available for her on arrival in the UK, leaving her “reliant on handouts”.

He also noted that the report highlighted the struggle for survival for many care workers who are unable to find work, turning to food banks and sleeping rough on the streets.

Stakeholders from local councils and the care work sector also said there was a lack of clear and transparent information provided to migrants about UK employment rights, legal and illegal fees and how to access support and advice related to worker exploitation.

The report praised the Home Office’s frontline staff working with care staff and their awareness of the “serious risks”.

But Mr Neil said: “What worries me most is that there does not appear to be any process in place for the Home Office to learn lessons from this disaster and then incorporate those lessons into core thinking so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

“Accountability for failures is often lacking. While ministers have ultimate responsibility, they rely on advice from senior Home Office leaders; this advice is either ignored or proves to be poor.”

‘Strong measures’

The former inspector called for a comprehensive review of visa pathways, sponsorship licensing and compliance, with multi-agency protocols in place so all parties know their responsibilities.

But Mr Neal’s conclusions sounded less optimistic, adding: “When this report is published its findings will no doubt be explained. The remedies I have mentioned will be highlighted, although they will be implemented very slowly. .”

“Such reactions should not distract from the damage that has been done, and reflexive, defensive reactions should not prevent a rigorous examination of what went wrong here and what must be done to prevent it from happening again.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We have intervened to prevent overseas care workers from entering the UK because they have no real role in the UK and have taken strong action against businesses that exploit labour.

“We will not tolerate illegal activity in the labor market and we will continue to revoke the licenses of those who abuse the system. The new measures, which have come into force, will reduce the number of visas issued and address serious concerns about high levels of breaches, exploitation and and mistreatment of workers.

“As with all our policies, we will keep them under close review and will not hesitate to take further steps if required.”

But Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called both Mr Neil’s reports “disgraceful”, saying they “exposed a Conservative government that has lost control of our borders and border security”.

She added: “Even now, ministers are concealing the true scale of the shortcomings, redacting much of the important information and leaking the report when Parliament is unable to respond.”

The Home Office said all changes were made for “national security reasons”.