Talent Gore
A WHISTLE-BLOWER has made sensational claims that marriage certificates are being forged, including pairing brothers and sisters as husbands and wives, as part of elaborate schemes to secure employment with care agencies in the UK.
Thousands of Zimbabweans have been lured to work in the UK care industry where they have joined migrant communities from Nigeria, India, Romania, Poland and the Philippines, to name but a few countries.
But, a whistle-blower claims the process of securing a visa, and the care jobs, has been tainted by dark artists who, among other things, are forging marriage certificates.
The whistle-blower says he has been receiving help and counselling after his wife took their child to the UK, without his permission, and changed the child’s documents through forgery.
He says he has instituted legal proceedings against his wife in Zimbabwe.
“I have been invited on BBC to testify on my ongoing issue.
“Also did my interview with the Home office online, told them everything. A lot of issues are going to be discussed and these are:
l How Zimbos are forging marriage certificates with their blood brothers and sisters to be granted visas.
l How Zimbos are forging children supporting documents as well as school supporting documents.
l How Zimbos are forging and buying supporting letters for work as references.
l How Zimbos are bribing the headmen for traditional marriage letters of recommendation.
l How Zimbos are buying and forging Red Cross certificates as well as St John’s Certificates.
l How Zimbos are bribing the furniture companies to backdate dates of supporting evidence of (marriage).
l How Zimbos are even harbouring each other in UK homes without Home Office or Council knowing it.
l How Zimbos are selling CSOs, Zimbos who came with CSOs without hours are working for fellow Zimbos as child minders or maids.
There have been reports of serious exploitation of Zimbabweans, mainly by their fellow countrymen and women, especially those who run care agencies.
In February, the Guardian newspaper of the UK reported that a care company charged migrant workers from Africa thousands of pounds to work in the UK when the cost of a visa was only a few hundred pounds.
“Care workers from Zimbabwe were told to pay the sums to Gloriavd Health Care Ltd in return for arranging social care jobs in and around Leeds and Bath,” the newspaper reported.
“They also claimed they were given far less paid work than they had been led to expect, were housed in overcrowded rooms and faced a threat that their conduct could be reported to the Home Office, leading them to fear deportation if they complained.
Winnet Mushaninga (40), a qualified care worker from Zimbabwe, showed the evidence of her bank transfers to the company’s bank account totalling £5 500.
But, reported the Guardian, on arrival in Britain last April, Mushaninga claimed she had to live squeezed four in a room, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, earning just £20 a day, and ended up feeding herself from a church food bank.
The Home Office charges no more than £551 for a visa for care workers and the cost of a sponsor licence for a small company to bring in foreign care workers is £536.
“The trauma and suffering was too much. We paid a lot of money. It’s just painful.”
Mushaninga is one of several care workers in Yorkshire being supported by the Leeds branch of Acorn, a community union fighting for justice for the care workers.