Illegal Albanian migrants offer £3,000 to fake guarantors in latest scam
Albanians who have entered the UK illegally on small boats are offering up to £3,000 to fake guarantors in a scam to avoid being held at detention centres.
Guarantors are advertising on social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook that they can provide the migrants with an address in the UK so that they can get bail and escape detention. Migrants must provide evidence of a legitimate address in the UK before they can be released on immigration bail.
The guarantors, who have their own dedicated page on TikTok, are also offering to remove the Albanians’ electronic tags which are used to prevent the migrants from absconding once they are freed into the community.
The scam comes as the Home Office is attempting to fast-track the deportation of thousands of Albanians who crossed the Channel last year. Albanians accounted for about a third of the 47,755 who reached the UK in small boats in 2022.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has also launched an investigation into up to 100 lawyers whom it believes are helping the people smuggling gangs abuse modern slavery laws to secure asylum for people entering the UK.
Ministers have claimed that Albanian criminal gangs are misusing the modern slavery and asylum system at a time when record numbers of people are referred to the Home Office as potential victims of exploitation.
An Albanian interpreter in London who is working freelance for different immigration solicitors, said there were “lots” of migrants seeking to get out of detention centres.
“They have got relatives who do not fulfil the criteria to become a guarantor so the solution has been found inside the Albanian community,” said the interpreter who asked to remain anonymous.
“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.”
The Telegraph followed up a post on Facebook where an Albanian migrant wrote: “Hello country men. I urgently need a guarantor. I am willing to pay that person. Who can help me pls? Contact me…”
Describing himself as Niko, from Kukes, in northern Albania, the author of the Facebook post told a reporter: “My brother has been held in a detention centre at Gatwick. The only way to get him out is having a guarantor.”
‘On a small boat’
Asked how his brother arrived in the UK, Niko replied: “On a small boat. He has been there for a long time. I have not found a guarantor yet to get him out.”
A search of TikTok uncovered a page with the title “garantorpershqipe1 London” (meaning Guarantor for Albanians London).
One post said: “We take people out of detention with the help of charities.” Another said: “Guarantor for Albanian. We remove tags. Guarantor for criminal cases (getting bail) and immigration.”
The National Crime Agency has started the process of examining which lawyers may be assisting the criminal gangs, with the agency estimating that “tens” of solicitors could be involved.
Rob Richardson, the head of the NCA’s modern slavery and human trafficking unit, said it appeared to be prevalent with Albanian organised crime gangs where there was already evidence of migrants being coached on how to make claims to avoid deportation.
“So 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.
The Home Office, TikTok and Facebook were approached for comment.
