-Special Investigative Report
(Lanka-e-News -12.April.2025, 9.30 PM) LONDON -A storm is brewing in Britain’s immigration and healthcare corridors. A system meant to bring in skilled foreign care workers to support the United Kingdom’s overburdened social care sector is now under fire, following revelations that hundreds of individuals—predominantly from Sri Lanka—may have entered the country using forged documents, fake educational certificates, and fabricated credentials.
What was once hailed as a mutually beneficial solution to the UK’s care staffing crisis is now being investigated as a sophisticated transnational racket—a scandal that could have far-reaching diplomatic consequences and shatter the integrity of one of the UK's most important work visa programs.
In late 2022, the UK government opened the “Health and Care Worker” visa route to foreign nationals, fast-tracking thousands of work permits in response to mounting staff shortages in hospitals and care homes. The intention was noble: tap into the global workforce, especially from Commonwealth countries like Sri Lanka, to fill essential care roles that British citizens were either unwilling or unavailable to take.
But the UK Home Office has recently launched a wide-ranging internal probe into reports of systemic fraud. At the heart of the investigation are 14 Sri Lankan nationals currently residing and working in the UK, all of whom are suspected of providing forged qualifications and falsified experience records in order to obtain their visas.
Preliminary findings suggest that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
A confidential report seen by this newspaper, compiled by a Home Office working group, estimates that up to 99.8% of care workers arriving from Sri Lanka between 2023 and early 2025 may have submitted fraudulent documents, including fake National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in health and social care and doctored English proficiency results.
“This is a prime example of a visa route being hijacked by profit-driven brokers and recruitment cartels,” said a senior UK Border Force official on the condition of anonymity. “We are not talking about one or two isolated cases. This is systemic.”
In Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, a parallel economy has sprung up around the promise of a UK visa. Aspiring migrants are reportedly being charged between Rs. 4.5 to 5.5 million (approximately £12,000–£14,000) by unscrupulous brokers in exchange for "guaranteed" employment opportunities in UK care homes. For this sum, the brokers promise not just job offers, but also fabricated CVs, forged certificates, and coaching on how to pass visa interviews.
Interviews with family members of workers already in the UK reveal a disturbing pattern: many of these so-called "care workers" had never worked in a hospital or care home in Sri Lanka, and some could barely speak English.
“My cousin paid Rs. 5 million to a man who promised to get him to the UK as a care assistant,” said one woman from Galle. “He used to run a small grocery shop. They gave him certificates, training videos, and even helped him pass an English language test using someone else.”
Multiple Sri Lankan recruitment agencies appear to be complicit in the scheme, including those registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE)—the very government body meant to regulate overseas employment. Whistleblowers allege that officials at both the SLBFE and Sri Lanka Immigration Department accepted bribes to approve fake documentation, enabling the illegal outflow of unqualified individuals under the guise of legal migration.
The UK’s Home Office Fraud Investigation Team has flagged Sri Lanka as a "high-risk country" for document fraud. One internal memorandum recommends that all future visa applications from Sri Lankan nationals in the care sector be subjected to enhanced vetting, background checks, and third-party verification of educational and professional qualifications.
Already, British High Commission officials in Colombo have suspended at least three local recruitment agents from submitting visa applications and are working with Interpol and Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to identify key players in the forgery network.
An unnamed British official described the situation as "deeply disappointing" but emphasized that "the majority of Sri Lankans in the UK are law-abiding, hardworking individuals." Nonetheless, the current scandal is expected to cast a long shadow over the entire Sri Lankan migrant community, potentially subjecting even legitimate applicants to prolonged scrutiny and suspicion.
The fallout isn't just diplomatic or bureaucratic—it’s practical and immediate. British care homes and private health providers, many already struggling with staff shortages, may soon be forced to terminate contracts with Sri Lankan recruits pending verification of credentials. This could cripple care delivery in some regions, particularly in smaller towns where foreign staff make up a majority of the workforce.
Several care home managers interviewed for this report admitted that they rarely verify foreign qualifications beyond checking whether the Home Office has issued a valid work permit.
“We trusted the system,” said a care home director in Manchester. “Now we’re left wondering whether our staff can legally or safely care for vulnerable residents.”
Ironically, many of the individuals who paid brokers and made their way to the UK under false pretenses now find themselves trapped in a legal and financial nightmare.
“They were desperate,” said a London-based Sri Lankan community organizer. “They mortgaged homes, sold land, and borrowed from loan sharks. Now they’re being investigated, possibly deported, and left penniless.”
Some of these individuals, while unqualified, claim they were misled by middlemen who told them that formal qualifications didn’t really matter, as long as they got the visa.
“They said all care workers are trained after they arrive,” said a Sri Lankan worker who requested anonymity. “I didn’t know it was illegal. I thought this was how everyone went abroad.”
Back home, the scandal has sparked a firestorm. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment has launched its own investigation into the SLBFE’s licensing and monitoring systems. Meanwhile, opposition MPs have called for an independent inquiry into the role of Sri Lankan officials in facilitating fraudulent migration.
“This is not just a visa scandal—it’s a human trafficking operation disguised as foreign employment,” said MP Harini Wijesekera during a parliamentary session last week. “Our own institutions enabled it.”
Despite mounting evidence, no arrests have been made in Sri Lanka, and the government has remained largely silent about the international implications of the case. Critics accuse officials of protecting politically connected brokers, while deflecting blame onto low-level employees.
In the UK, immigration lawyers say the 14 Sri Lankans under active investigation are likely to face visa cancellations, detention, and deportation, pending the outcome of the Home Office probe. But broader legal questions loom large: Should care providers be penalized for employing unqualified workers? Could victims who paid brokers be granted leniency? Will the UK government overhaul the care visa pathway altogether?
Meanwhile, thousands of genuine Sri Lankan applicants—nurses, medical aides, and trained caregivers—now face longer delays, more paperwork, and higher skepticism, all thanks to the fraud of a few.
What began as a lifeline—both for Britain’s ailing care system and Sri Lanka’s unemployed youth—has now become a cautionary tale. At the center of it lies a complex web of greed, desperation, and systemic failure.
The scandal underscores not only the vulnerabilities of the UK’s visa infrastructure but also the moral cost of migration built on lies. It raises uncomfortable questions about how deeply embedded corruption has become in Sri Lanka’s overseas employment industry, and whether international cooperation alone can stem the tide of deception.
For now, the forged dreams of a better life have become a nightmare—not just for the workers, but for the credibility of an entire community.
-Special Investigative Report
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by (2025-04-12 16:28:56)
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