INVESTIGATION: Undercover in Britain’s immigration black market

调查:潜入英国移民黑市

The Story

2026-01-28

29 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

As immigration rules have tightened in recent months, some migrants already working in the UK, whose visas have been cancelled, find themselves in a precarious position. Agents are selling a workaround, offering to arrange fake jobs which can be used to obtain real visas, in exchange for exorbitant fees. The Times went undercover, posing as a migrant facing deportation, to expose how this black market is operating. This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Guest: Shanti Das, senior investigations reporter, The Times. Host: Manveen Rana. Producer: Taryn Siegel. We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com Read more: How migrants are buying fake jobs to stay in the UK illegally Photo: Times Media Ltd. This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is the story.

  • I'm Manvin Rana.

  • In a quiet corner of an East London restaurant surrounded by diners on a Wednesday night,

  • an unregulated visa agent explained to us how he planned to dupe the home office.

  • That's Shanti Das, a senior investigations reporter at The Times.

  • He lent board across the table.

  • He didn't know he was being filmed.

  • And he spelled out in detail how he planned to secure a work visa for a man he believed was facing deportation from the UK.

  • He explained that on paper everything would look legitimate.

  • All the evidence would show the man was an employee of an event management company who'd applied for the job through the proper channels and was picked

  • because he was an impressive candidate.

  • The thing is, in reality, the job wouldn't exist.

  • In the past few months, the Labour government has clamped down on legal migration,

  • introducing new, more stringent rules and regulations.

  • As a result, applications for skilled worker visas have begun to plummet.

  • But foreign workers who are already in the UK,

  • who've now had their sponsorship cancelled,

  • suddenly find themselves thrust into a difficult position.

  • Find new sponsorship in 60 days, or face deportation.

  • For some companies and agents, that desperation has created an opportunity.