Recruitment agents scamming foreign nationals seeking jobs in the UK care sector have been exposed through undercover filming by the BBC. One of the culprits is a Nigerian doctor who previously worked in psychiatry within the NHS.
While the Home Office has acknowledged that the system is vulnerable to abuse, the BBC World Service investigation reveals the ease with which these agents exploit individuals, evade detection, and continue profiting from their illegal activities.
Our secret footage uncovers the tactics used by these agents, including:
Illegally selling job opportunities in UK care companies
Creating fake payroll systems to hide non-existent jobs
Shifting focus from care work to other sectors, like construction, which also face staffing shortages
Reports of immigration scams have surged since 2022, when the government expanded a visa program originally intended for foreign medical professionals to include care workers.
To apply for this visa, candidates must first obtain a "Certificate of Sponsorship" (CoS) from a Home Office-approved UK employer. It is this need for CoS documents that rogue relocation agents are exploiting.
Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre, a charity assisting migrants, states, “The scale of exploitation under the Health and Care Work visa is significant. I think it has turned into a national crisis.”
Vicol also highlights a "systemic risk" in the sponsorship system, which gives employers significant power and has led to a surge of exploitative middlemen.
The BBC sent undercover journalists to meet with relocation agents operating in the UK. One of these agents, Dr. Kelvin Alaneme, a Nigerian doctor and founder of CareerEdu, an agency based in Harlow, Essex, was caught on camera. His website claims to offer "global opportunities" for young Africans, boasting of 9,800 "happy clients."
Dr. Alaneme, believing the journalist to be well-connected in the UK care sector, attempted to recruit her as a business partner, saying, “Just get me care homes. I can make you a millionaire.” He offered £2,000 ($2,600) per care home vacancy she could secure, plus a £500 ($650) commission, and then proposed selling the non-existent vacancies to candidates in Nigeria.
Charging candidates for jobs is illegal in the UK. When confronted, Dr. Alaneme quietly admitted, “They are paying because they know it's most likely the only way.”
The BBC’s investigation was sparked by multiple complaints about his services. Praise, a Nigerian man who paid Dr. Alaneme more than £10,000 ($13,000) for a supposed care job in the UK, was one of those who came forward. After arriving in the UK, Praise discovered that the job with "Efficiency for Care" did not exist. Despite months of promises from Dr. Alaneme, the job never materialized, and it took nearly a year for Praise to find another employer willing to sponsor him.
BBC’s investigation revealed that "Efficiency for Care," which employed 16 people in 2022, had issued 1,234 CoS to foreign workers between March 2022 and May 2023, according to a letter from the Home Office. The company’s sponsorship license was revoked in July 2023, although it continues to operate. The company denied any involvement with Dr. Alaneme’s activities and has contested the revocation in court.
In another secretly filmed conversation, Dr. Alaneme explained a more sophisticated scam involving fake sponsorship documents for non-existent jobs, stating that a CoS not tied to a specific job would allow workers to choose any city in the UK, which is false. Migrants who do not work in the role they were assigned risk having their visas canceled and being deported.
Dr. Alaneme also revealed how to create a fake payroll system to conceal the lack of actual employment, saying, “That [a money trail] is what the government needs to see.”
When confronted, Dr. Alaneme denied his business was a scam and claimed the money Praise paid was for transport, accommodation, and training, and that he had offered to help find another employer free of charge.
The BBC also uncovered similar activities involving another UK-based agent, Nana Akwasi Agyemang-Prempeh, who had been accused by several people of charging tens of thousands of pounds for care worker positions that did not exist. Some of the CoS documents he provided turned out to be fake replicas of real ones.
Further investigation revealed that Agyemang-Prempeh had started offering CoS for UK construction jobs, a sector also facing staffing shortages. He later set up a construction company and obtained a sponsorship license from the Home Office. When approached by the BBC’s undercover journalist, Agyemang-Prempeh quoted £42,000 ($54,000) for three workers and explained that agents were turning to sectors like construction and IT as the care sector’s rules tightened.
In total, more than 470 sponsorship licenses in the UK care sector were revoked between July 2022 and December 2024. These licenses were responsible for recruiting over 39,000 workers from overseas since October 2020.
Agyemang-Prempeh later asked for a down payment for the CoS documents, but the BBC declined to provide the money. The Home Office has since revoked his sponsorship license. When questioned by the BBC, Agyemang-Prempeh claimed that he had been misled by other agents and did not realize he was selling fake CoS documents.
In a statement, the Home Office vowed to take "robust new action against shameless employers who abuse the visa system" and announced plans to "ban businesses who flout UK employment laws from sponsoring overseas workers."
The BBC’s investigations have previously uncovered similar scams targeting individuals in Kerala, India, and international students in the UK seeking care sector jobs.
In November 2024, the government announced a crackdown on “rogue” employers hiring workers from overseas. Starting on April 9, 2025, care providers in England will be required to prioritize recruiting international care workers already in the UK before recruiting new staff from abroad.
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