Journalist Nick Fielding approached one of the many London recruitment agencies, posing as a person who had recently entered the kingdom illegally. There he was told that they could give him the number of a certain man who specialized in solving the numerous 'paper' problems of illegal immigrants. Meeting this man (who claimed to be from Lithuania), the journalist learned that for 250 pounds ($450) he could get a Lithuanian passport, a business visa, and along with it a national insurance number. 'We have done this more than once and know how it all works. The British think the passport has been checked. So I am sure that getting a business visa will not be a problem,' the intermediary told the journalist.
In all, about 250,000 Russian speakers from the former USSR live in the British capital. And only a small part of them, as The Sunday Times writes, work legally. It is in the search for work for those who are in Britain illegally that Russian-language newspapers and shops help - albeit unintentionally. So, in the newspaper 'London-Info' there is a free classifieds board, where there are many such offers: 'Wide selection of services! Student and business visas. CIS and NI cards. Opening accounts and obtaining loans. Work. Help with paperwork.' Calling such an ad, the journalist met with two Russians who said that a Russian passport, visa and all other documents would cost 1,000 pounds. During the journalistic investigation, the reporter met such people more than once.
All the people involved in this case, to whom the newspaper later turned for official comments, said that they knew nothing about helping illegal immigrants.
As the BBC recalls, in early April the deputy interior minister of Great Britain resigned. Her resignation was the result of a scandal caused by accusations that the British Home Office issued visas on the basis of false documents. The scandal flared up after an employee of the British consulate in Bucharest sent an email to a British parliamentarian from the opposition Conservative Party, expressing concern about the established practice of issuing visas to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria. His message confirmed signals previously received by the Conservatives that officials of the immigration department in Sheffield in northern England simply did not check the papers they received and often issued business visas on the basis of false documents.
UNDERGROUND PRICES
National insurance number - 80-150 pounds.
Student or business visa - 90-150 pounds.
Full package of documents - 200-250 pounds.
Fake passport - 250-1,000 pounds.
_