Illegal migrants flock to Britain for ‘easy money' takeaway delivery jobs

Telegraph

04-05-2025

Asylum seekers housed in Home Office hotels are paying off people smuggler debts by illegally working as bike couriers for fast food and grocery delivery companies.
Migrants are making up to £500 a week by working for delivery services, including Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, it has been revealed in a month-long Daily Telegraph investigation.
The couriers, many of whom are banned from working because of their immigration status, are then wiring cash back home to cover the cost of loans that were used to pay criminal gangs for small boat trips across the English Channel.
The Telegraph has gone undercover to speak to people smugglers, exposing carefully honed sales pitches promoting the UK as the ultimate asylum destination because working in the gig economy is 'easy' and migrants are guaranteed a 'free' Government hotel room.
One Istanbul-based smuggler said Britain is best because 'all you need is a mobile phone and a bike' to make 'good money'.
Migrants housed in Home Office-funded UK hotels have told how they share bikes and illegal e-bikes, many modified to exceed speed limits, and work for delivery apps as 'substitute' riders.
Courier accounts are rented out to migrants for between £75 and £100 a week on the black market.
In 2023, the Home Office found that two in five delivery drivers stopped during random checks were working illegally.
A resident based in a London hotel, which is home to hundreds of male asylum seekers, said 'nearly all' the hotel's inhabitants were working as self-employed couriers to cover their Channel crossings.
Some migrants are even being pestered by family members demanding that they settle their debts.
The findings come a week after the number of migrants crossing the Channel hit 10,000 in record time under Labour.
The method
The Telegraph contacted people smugglers operating from Turkey, Herat in western Afghanistan, Tehran in Iran, and migrant encampments in northern France.
Their details were obtained from British-based migrants, along with those living in squalid camps in Calais and Dunkirk in northern France.
The smugglers spoke in a variety of languages, including a mix of Arabic and English, Persian, Dari, Pashto and Kurdish.
They were intensely security conscious, often preferring to communicate through online messenger apps – including WhatsApp or Telegram – and voice messages that automatically deleted once played.
Their telephone numbers showed that their SIM cards had been purchased in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The tried and tested sales pitch
The smugglers' slick sales patter rarely changed: they encouraged their prospective 'customers' to scrape together enough money to get to Britain with the promise of reaping tremendous rewards.
One Dunkirk-based trafficker insisted that work was far more plentiful in the UK than in France while speaking to a journalist posing as a migrant stranded in Paris.
The man, who charged £1,370 (€1,600) for a place on a rigid-hulled inflatable boat and a life jacket, said: 'My friend, come to Dunkirk, I'm here waiting for you. I can send you to England.
'The police will find you before you even reach the shore. They'll take you to a hotel where you'll have everything.
'The Government pays you, feeds you and they'll even give you a good home. They won't leave you out on the street, like in France.'
He added: 'You'll find work very easily. There are easy jobs you can do while staying in hotels they put you in. All you need is a phone and a bike to make good money. People there will help you.'
A Turkish 'agent' based in Istanbul said: 'Life in England is good.'
Speaking to a reporter posing as a migrant who had crossed from Syria into Turkey, he said: 'Getting to the UK is as easy as drinking a glass of water. Many I have sent have found work with nothing more than a mobile phone and a bike.
'Delivering food is the easiest option while your case is being reviewed. Trust me, life in England is great – you'll earn plenty.'
The man, who charged £7,500 for the trip, boasted of being part of a network of cells operating in numerous European countries.
'When you get to France, you can imagine you're already in London,' he added.
Asked whether there were risks in crossing the English Channel, he laughed: 'Don't believe what you hear in the news – the crossing is easy.'
A Calais-based people smuggler reassured a potential 'customer' over a messenger app that borrowed funds used to reach the UK can be easily paid back.
He said: 'My dear brother, Inshallah, with God's power, I'll send you to England. You'll make money very easily.
'I send many people. They work just by having a bike and delivering food. And after work you will have a hotel room to rest in.'
He said job prospects improved for the well-educated.
The smuggler said: 'Once your asylum is sorted, you can get a better job, with the help of God.
'The UK is much better [than France]. There are so many opportunities because it's an industrial country with a lot of money. France is good, but you have to work harder, and it's more difficult to get asylum.'
The 'customers' Normandy camps
Sat cross-legged on a threadbare blanket beneath a tarpaulin tied between three trees to make one of many makeshift tents in a wood near Dunkirk's ferry terminal, Khaled admitted that such sales pitches were very tempting.
The Syrian man, in his 20s, said: 'I have heard what they say. We know people who have made it to England; some are in hotels in London, others have been moved out to other cities.
'Getting work delivering food or things from markets is plentiful.'
A man from Afghanistan, who refused to give his name, said he was trying to borrow money from his family 'back home' for the crossing.
Speaking in broken English, he explained that some relatives considered lending money to get a male relative to the 'wealthy' UK as a potential investment because 'there is much work'.
Vahid, an Iranian man who has been in Dunkirk with his family for two years, said Britain is attractive because of the opportunities to get work.
He said: 'We don't have a good life here; we are not allowed to work, and even if we could, there are not many jobs to do.'
Paying off the debts
In London, Gholam sat astride a powerful e-bike with a bright green insulated bag fitted to its rear rack. He shrugged as he admitted that 'technically' he should not be working in London.
For nearly six months, the 26-year-old Afghan asylum seeker has been acting as a fast food courier, using numerous delivery apps, while staying at a hotel funded by the Home Office.
He was surrounded by about 60 bicycles – both pedal and battery-powered – lined up between the hotel's two main entrances. Thermal bags bearing the branding of UberEats, Just Eat and Deliveroo could be seen fitted to the rear of many bikes.
Some residents had used cardboard reinforced with black masking tape to make hermetically sealed boxes to snugly stack pizza cartons.
While intermittently checking his phone for orders, Gholam said: 'My family lent me the money to pay the smugglers.
'Now, I need to work to send them money back. I can't just stay in the hotel and do nothing - I'd go mad.
'I send money to my family to pay off the debt. There's no work in Afghanistan, so I'm also supporting them [from here].'
He said he pays £70 a week to rent an account for the delivery app, Stuart, from a man in Turkey, and then sends about £300 a month to his family.
'I use someone else's account because I don't have documents. The account owner sends me the money and he keeps his £70 share,' he said. 'I deliver both restaurant food and groceries from supermarkets.
'I used to have a Deliveroo account, but it belonged to someone else, and it got blocked.'
Another migrant courier said many residents 'had a [financial] burden on their shoulders' after getting help to pay the fee to cross the Channel.
As a result, he said, there was an incentive to get courier work, whether legally with an official visa or through the network of substitute accounts traded – often illegally – online.
'Nine out of ten guys have borrowed money from their relatives to get here,' he said. 'They get into the hotels and have no income – they are doing nothing. They get depression.
'The people back home think we are millionaires and have a very good income. The truth is very different.
'But, people here have a burden on their shoulders from the debt. The relatives are calling them saying 'give us our money back'.'
A Kurdish man claimed that he was feeling 'suicidal' after spending months languishing in a hotel because his immigration status meant that he could not work. He added: 'I wish I never came.'
The bike for work share scheme
Unclipping a heavy battery pack from the large frame of an e-bike, a migrant courier working from another London hotel hired out by the Home Office laughed nervously as he admitted to having had 'a few problems' with the police.
He said: 'I am scared of the police. One or two times, I have been chased by them. But I escaped.
'They had a normal bike with pedals. I had this e-bike. It goes fast when I press the button. I rent it for £60 a week from an Afghan friend here.'
He claimed that his black bike with thick tyres can reach up to 40mph under battery power.
Motors on legal e-bikes are capped at 15.5mph.
One London hostel had a makeshift bike workshop, with frames, spare wheels and insulated handlebar gloves stacked in a rear yard where 'mechanics' – other asylum seekers – repaired the bikes.
Nearby, a sign written in 11 different languages – including Arabic, Amharic, Hindi, Urdu and English – demanded couriers stop parking their e-bikes in the hotel car park. Fifteen battery-operated bikes were parked underneath the sign.
The Highway Code
A Middle Eastern migrant courier, who was handed a file of road signs from the Highway Code, paused as he was shown a Give Way sign.
After a few seconds, he smiled and declared that it was a No Entry symbol. He also wrongly thought that a warning sign of a slippery road ahead was telling motorists where to park and that a narrowing road sign was warning of an upcoming roundabout.
However, the Afghan asylum seeker courier was aware that red traffic lights tell both bikes and cars to stop, and that a zebra crossing means pedestrians have the right of way.
'I rode a motorbike in Kabul,' he said, adding that he also worked as a courier in Belgium to help fund his 2022 crossing. 'I always stop at traffic lights.'
Another courier warned that many 'may not stop at red lights' because they often carry two deliveries to entirely different locations and are, therefore, riding as fast as they can.
Substitute accounts
Some of the migrant couriers had work visas, whereas others claimed that they had found ways to bypass increasing security on the apps.
One migrant rented a phone to get a substitute courier account, for which he paid £100 a week.
He said: 'If you have someone's phone with the [app] account [on it] and it asks you to prove identity with facial recognition, you just go to the account holder's home to get it done.'
He claimed that the weakest security allows the fake courier to 'log in and log off' and the real account holder to log in on their mobile phone to respond to identity checks.
One delivery rider, whose work visa meant he was granted employment, said the big-name couriers, including Deliveroo and Uber Eats, were the most popular because they were the most lucrative.
However, he said new security measures were presenting challenges for those without the 'correct papers'.
He said: 'Delivery jobs are simple and easy. You don't need to talk much English.'
Dame Angela Eagle, the border security minister, said: ''Under our Plan for Change, we are introducing tough new laws to tackle illegal working.
'We are extending Right to Work checks on those hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like food delivery, and ending the use of flexible arrangements.
'Companies who try and escape this will face hefty penalties of up to £60,000 per worker, a potential prison sentence of up to five years, and their business closed.
''We expect online delivery companies to step up checks they are already doing or face the consequences. We remain in close contact with online delivery companies such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, who are already carrying out right to work checks.'
A Stuart spokesman said he would not comment on specific cases, but explained that the company runs 'compliance checks' when couriers join, including on 'right-to-work documentation'.
He said that those who were found to be using the app for 'unauthorised account sharing' had their accounts shut down.
A Deliveroo spokesman said the company had worked with the Home Office and 'led the industry to secure our platform against illegal working', having introduced 'direct right to work checks' and a registration for substitute riders, with daily identity verification checks.
He added: 'We are currently rolling out additional device ID checks for all riders and will continue to strengthen our controls to prevent misuse of our platform.'
An Uber Eats spokesman said the business had also worked with the Home Office to ensure couriers who use its app undergo right-to-work checks. They added that Uber Eats had launched 'new detection tools to crack down on anyone attempting to work illegally on our platform' and was removing 'fraudulent accounts'.
He added: 'Safety incidents on the Uber Eats platform are incredibly rare, and if a courier engages in any illegal or unsafe behaviour, we take a range of actions, including permanently deactivating the courier's access to the app.'
A Just Eat spokesman said it sets 'high standards and clear criteria for our self-employed couriers', including criminal records, age, insurance and right to work checks, with the relevant documentation.
He added that spot checks are carried out on couriers and that a 'voluntary rollout of biometric checks' had recently been introduced.
They all said riders found to have broken road rules are removed from their apps.