More than 100 care workers face deportation as care agency loses licence to sponsor

LONDON July 16: More than a hundred migrants and their families face being in Britain illegally after the company which sponsored them to come to work in the UK was stripped of its ability to endorse their visas.

Migrants employed by care agency R Personnel have just weeks to find a new sponsor or return home before their legal right to be in the country runs out, Sky News reported.

If a sponsor licence is no longer valid, the Home Office will notify employees giving them 60 days to find a new sponsor or return home.

One of the employee Muhammad tells Sky News that he paid £19,000 to a recruitment agent before being sent a certificate of sponsorship and job offer from R Personnel. R Personnel maintains that the company has no connection to any foreign recruitment agents.

Soon after arriving in the UK, Muhammad realised there was no work for him. His certificate of sponsorship, approved by the Home Office, states the urgent need for care workers at the company, with “1500 hours uncovered per week”. Muhammad should have been guaranteed 39 hours of work per week, but says there was no contracted work available.

Muhammad claims more than 150 foreign workers have been recruited for that site alone but says there’s only enough work for around 15 staff – a mixture of private referrals and local authority clients.

Brighton and Hove Council confirmed to Sky News that it had used R Personnel to deliver care to people in their homes, but that its contract involved only a small number of people.

A spokesperson said: “We currently have six clients placed with R Personnel and it informed us directly of both the recent investigation and the subsequent notice it has had its overseas sponsor licence revoked.

“When an overseas sponsor licence is suspended or revoked our practice is to pause all new referrals to that provider while we review any potential risks.”

Sky News reports that the owner hosted a virtual meeting for dozens of employees during which he explained the loss of sponsorship licence.

Muhammad, who was on the call, says workers were upset and angry, questioning what they should do and demanding to be paid.

There are more than 116,000 companies listed as “approved sponsors”, able to recruit people to come to the UK.

If a sponsor licence is no longer valid, the Home Office will notify employees giving them 60 days to find a new sponsor or return home.