The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Migration Agency, has cautioned migrants about a syndicate that specialized in providing fictitious employment letters to Nigerians seeking employment in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to information released by the IOM, more than 260,000 Nigerians contacted it in 2023 to request advice on how to migrate via authorized or regular routes as well as to undertake pre-departure medical examinations.
According to the UN agency, over a thousand Nigerians are presently stuck in the UK after being granted visas on the basis of fictitious employment letters that were obtained on their behalf. However, once they arrived at the designated organizations in the UK, they were told they were not eligible for employment because the letters did not originate from those organizations.
IOM’s Chief of Mission, Mr Laurent De Boeck, at a news conference Monday in Abuja, said;
“There are some of them who lost over $10,000 only to be given fake employment letters, which allowed them to get visas. They get there, present the letters, and the organizations tell them that the letters did not emanate from the organizations. Over a thousand people are affected,” he stated.
De Boeck also added that IOM was working with partners to repatriate thousands of persons, including Nigerians, from Tunisia, which has recently placed a ban on migration.
He said the IOM is working extensively with Italy to develop regular pathways for qualified Nigerians and that it would also engage other countries like Spain, Belgium, France, and others.
