LONDON: Albanians entering the UK illegally on small boats are offering to pay up to $3,700 (£3,000) to fake guarantors to avoid being held at detention centers, the Telegraph reported on Thursday.
Guarantors were promoting on social media that they could provide the migrants with a UK address to get bail and escape detention.
On TikTok, guarantors were also offering to remove the Albanians’ electronic tags designed to prevent them from fleeing once released into the community, the Telegraph said.
The scam comes as the British Home Office tries to expedite the deportation of hundreds of Albanians who crossed the Channel last year. Albanians made up around one-third of the 47,755 people that arrived in the UK on small boats in 2022.
An Albanian interpreter in London who works freelance for immigration solicitors, said many migrants were trying to get out of detention centers.
“They have got relatives who do not fulfil the criteria to become a guarantor, so the solution has been found inside the Albanian community,” the interpreter told the Telegraph.
“For a payment of up to £3,000, people who have a house are becoming guarantors. Every day, I see people who have no ties at all with the persons who have become guarantors. This is becoming a growing business.
“Courts are not asking at all what sort of relationship the person applying for bail (has) with the guarantor,” they added.
The National Crime Agency was also investigating whether lawyers were assisting people-smuggling groups in abusing modern slavery laws in order to seek asylum for individuals entering the UK. It estimated that “tens” of solicitors could be involved, the Telegraph reported.
Rob Richardson, head of the NCA’s modern slavery and human trafficking unit, said it appeared to be prevalent among Albanian organized crime gangs, where migrants were already being trained on how to make claims to avoid deportation.
“We’ve seen some examples where individuals have got scripts. They’ve been told exactly what to tell policemen to get picked up. And we have concerns about how that works,” he told The Guardian.
