Nigerians Stranded in UK Are Victims of UK Visa Scam - Report

Over the past years, Nigerians have been complaining of falling into the hands of scammers all in a bid to migrate to the UK.

The 'Japa' strategy which has been going on for a time has witnessed thousands of Nigerians going overseas to work while some go through school.

However, it has not ended well for many as life became tougher than it was when they lived here in Nigeria.

A new report has revealed that the level at which Nigerians get scammed relocating to the UK is witnessing a significant rise. So many have paid thousands of pounds to the UK for jobs only to get there and notice that they were scammed.

A Sky News report earlier revealed on Wednesday the hardship Nigerian migrants face by going through "traveling agents" and end up paying huge sums to enter the UK only to find things different than they were told.

The report,

• How the skilled worker visa system is 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.

A woman who paid £10,000 to an agent for a skilled worker visa was left stranded when the supposed job was a scam.

Mary Adekugbe, the founder of the Nigerian Community Centre in Rochdale says that skilled worker visas looking for support are becoming a burden to her which she termed "shameful".

Also in the report, Jones Adekugbe commented on another homeless lady who was too shy to speak with the correspondent.

• Last week we gave her bread and tuna because that’s what she can eat easily without cooking or warming.

• 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.

So far, the UK has issued over 170,000 visas to skilled workers in 2022. This figure has shown that many Nigerians are running into the UK for a better living, but the transparency in this process is relatively low as scammers have now gained the freedom to go about their normal business of collecting money deceitfully.