"‘Pretty dodgy’: alarm over suspect care agencies granted Home Office licence to act as visa sponsors”

Hundreds of newly established care providers have been granted licences by the Home Office to sponsor workers from abroad, despite being newly established and having no track record of providing services in Britain, the Observer can reveal…

Sponsor licences have been granted to newly formed firms that have never filed company accounts and are only a few months old. At least 268 companies that have never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have also been granted licences. Others appear to have been granted licences by the Home Office despite not being registered with the watchdog at all…

… [David] Neal [former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration] found that lax oversight was leading to egregious abuses of the sponsor licence system, including one case where the Home Office issued 275 visas to a care home that didn’t exist…

Immigration experts and charities said the cases were proof that lax oversight of the sponsor licence system was leading to bogus providers being given approval to recruit internationally, some of which have gone on to scam and exploit workers, including charging thousands of pounds to provide UK visa sponsorship…