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Telegraph
04-05-2025
- Telegraph
Illegal migrants flock to Britain for ‘easy money' takeaway delivery jobs
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.
The Independent
25-03-2025
- The Independent
Just 3% of domestic abusers charged after victim driven to suicide, figures show
Only 3 per cent of domestic abusers whose victims took their own lives have faced criminal charges in the past four years, figures show. A report found that the number of victims driven to suicide has outstripped those killed by their partner for the second year running, yet such abusers are still rarely held to account. A tragic 98 victims took their own lives between April 2023 and March 2024, compared with 80 who were killed by a current or former partner and 39 who were killed by a family member. This brings the total number of domestic-abuse-related deaths to 1012 since 2020, according to the government-funded Domestic Homicide Project, including 354 suspected suicides following domestic abuse. Nine in 10 perpetrators in the cases where victims are suspected to have died by suicide were known to police as potential abusers. Despite this, only 12 have faced criminal charges and only one was charged with manslaughter over their victim's death. Other charges included common assault, controlling or coercive behaviour, actual bodily harm (ABH) and harassment. Police have said they expect manslaughter charges to increase with new guidance that urges officers to check for a history of domestic abuse when they respond to unexpected deaths. Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for domestic abuse, said that in the past, investigators have 'missed obvious patterns' of abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour. But the Home Office-funded research has shown a 'significant link' between domestic abuse and suicide. 'We absolutely want to do everything we can, where there's justice to be had, to ensure every opportunity is taken to pursue justice,' said Assistant Commissioner Rolfe. She said new guidance means that officers responding to unexpected deaths should be asking questions about any history of abuse to ensure that 'every possible line of inquiry' is followed, although she noted that there are 'challenges' in proving a causal link between abuse and suicide. Earlier this year, Preston Crown Court heard how young mother Kiena Dawes left a suicide note blaming her abusive partner before she took her own life. Ryan Wellings was convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards Dawes after a six-week trial, but was cleared of her manslaughter. Grieving mother Sharon Holland, whose daughter Chloe Holland, 23, died after suffering a year of torment at the hands of an abusive partner, has repeatedly called for more to be done to ensure that abusers are held to account after victim suicides. She believes the scale of the problem is 'far higher' than the latest figures show, and called for better counselling and mental health support for victims. In Holland's case, Marc Masterton was jailed in 2023 for 41 months for coercive and controlling behaviour, but the CPS felt there was insufficient evidence to pursue manslaughter charges. His former partner came forward after hearing of Chloe's death, and he was jailed for a further 43 months last year. Assistant Commissioner Rolfe called for a focus on prevention, with help from other agencies including social services and mental health teams, adding: 'The data reinforces the critical need for policing to work with other agencies to identify those at risk of being [either] a perpetrator or a victim of domestic abuse. 'A preventative approach is the only way to stop the widespread harm of domestic abuse in all its forms.' Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, added: 'Every death related to domestic abuse is a life cut short and a devastating tragedy. The better we understand the links between domestic abuse and homicides, suicides and unexpected deaths, the better equipped we are to prevent them from happening in the first place. That's why the government has funded this vital research to shine a light on the scale of the problem. 'This report rightly demands coordinated action across government, police and partner agencies to tackle these issues head on – and we are already cracking on with work to put the voices of victims, their families and friends, and key stakeholders front and centre of this. 'Our upcoming violence against women and girls strategy will set out our ambition, and concrete actions to strengthen our response to perpetrators and deliver on our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.' If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@ or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to to find a helpline near you
BBC News
11-03-2025
- BBC News
What happens to people who cross the Channel on small boats?
The white cliffs of Dover represent the end of a long, dangerous route for tens of thousands of people who travel in small boats across the English while they might have reached their destination, their journey does not end at the Kent all arrivals will begin the process of claiming asylum, which can take months. At the end of December 2024, just under a third of cases had been waiting for more than a year for an initial latest figures show asylum claims reached a record level last year. 125,000 people were awaiting a decision. So what happens while they wait? Unaccompanied children Children who arrive in Dover on small boats without any family members, known as Unaccompanied Child Asylum Seekers (UASCs), will first become Kent County Council's (KCC) responsibility, because that is the county they have arrived recent years, KCC said it has struggled to cope with the number of children it has to look National Transfer Scheme was designed to ease the pressure. It sees other councils around the country take a share of UASCs, equivalent to 0.1% of their population of the leader of Kent County Council said at times it has become "extremely difficult" to transfer unaccompanied minors to other authorities. Adults and families The Home Office is responsible for housing adults and families and in recent years it has had to find extra accommodation to make room for growing includes sites like Napier Barracks, a former military barracks in Folkestone, Kent, and the use of hotels is lower now than it was two years the end of December 2024, 38,079 people were living in asylum hotels in the UK. That is lower than the peak in September 2023, when 56,042 people were in seekers are accommodated all over the latest Home Office figures from December show the North West had the highest number of asylum seekers receiving Home Office support, followed by London and the West Midlands. These people face a number of restrictions while they live here, as Dr Ben Brindle from the Migration Observatory explains:"Most aren't allowed to work, the only people who can are those who have been waiting for a more than a year for their claims to be processed."Asylum seekers can't claim benefits either and that's because they are given an allowance of about £50 plus housing costs if needed." What happens next? Not all applications are successful. In 2024, 53% of initial asylum claims were rejected. That's higher than 2023, when 33% of claims were who are granted asylum are given refugee status for five will have 56 days to move out of their Home Office-funded accommodation, their allowance will stop and they can get a it's unlikely they'll be able to become a British citizen as the government has recently toughened up rules making it almost impossible for people who have entered the UK illegally via a dangerous route to claim citizenship. 'Get a grip' on the system Border Security and Asylum Minister, Angela Eagle, said the government was left a "broken asylum system" and "inherited a huge backlog of asylum claims."Responding to the latest asylum statistics, she said "asylum decision-making collapsed by 70% in the last few months before the election."We've now increased asylum claims in the last three months of [2024]... by 52% so we're beginning to get some order to the system but it will take time to make certain that we can get a grip and start making the system work again."Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the figures as "no surprise," saying there was "no deterrent".Philp added that the blame for the numbers "lies firmly at Labour's feet, who have been slow to act to tackle the crisis unfolding on our border".
The Guardian
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
UK child sexual abuse survivors take standup comedy courses
Survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) are taking courses in standup comedy to help process their trauma, in the first such scheme in the UK. The comedian Angie Belcher, the first person to get standup comedy prescribed on the NHS through her project, Comedy on Referral, ran the two-day programme in Bristol last week. 'Comedy is often tragedy plus time, and these are people who have already gone through major counselling, are in recovery and are now looking to do something different to keep themselves busy,' said Belcher. 'Saying that something is funny doesn't mean it's not sad or serious,' she said. Standup comedy can be part of recovery because it gives power back to the victim by laughing at their oppressor. So instead of going, 'Oh God, that was terrible', they can say: 'You know what? The guy who raped me was a prick. Let me tell you why.' And that's funny.' There are an estimated 11 million survivors of CSA in the UK. A recent report by the child safeguarding practice review panel found at least one in 10 children would be sexually abused before the age of 16. CSA can lead to problems in later life, including addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorders, long-term clinical psychiatric diagnoses and suicide. Belcher has used comedy to address issues around CSA before. She has twice compered at the annual conference for the Green House, a Home Office-funded charity providing specialist support for CSA survivors. It was that event that led her to start mentoring survivors after young people at the conference asked for her help writing standup comedy for a Green House CSA festival. Gemma Halliwell, the chief executive of Green House, said: 'Survivors need to find ways to hold the pain alongside hope, positivity and healing, and that's where comedy can help. It's really important that we support survivors to find their voice in a way that's right for them: we don't all need talking therapies or medication.' Commissioned by the charity Southmead Project's Active Recovery scheme in Bristol, 12 survivors used their trauma as a starting block to wrote comedy on Belcher's course. She taught the young people to write jokes, discover their 'comedic persona' and use their 'inner comedian' in their everyday lives. Ryan Moore has learned standup with Belcher through Green House and Active Recovery. 'No pill that doctors have given me makes me feel as good as when I get on stage and talk about all the difficult things that have happened in my life,' he said. Moore said that while there was 'absolutely nothing funny about CSA', he found it necessary to tell audiences about it as part of his act so they could understand the context of his 'wild' later life. 'I don't have one single joke about the abuse but it's the context of my crazy adulthood, which is very funny,' he said. 'When I'm so transparent and honest with the audience, I build a rapport. That's so therapeutic that when I get off stage, I'm buzzing for the next week and feel so much more proud of myself than if I had to take a pill to survive.' Jemima Foxtrot, the director of Kindreds Creatives, which runs creative workshops for survivors of CSA, said turning trauma into standup comedy was a 'high-risk strategy' but one that for her had reaped 'huge rewards'. 'When the abuse happened to me, I could barely say the words: when I told my mum, I had to write it down,' she said. 'But because I've now tackled it repeatedly in my stage shows, I've finally got to a place where I can talk very openly.' Viv Gordon, the artistic director of UpFront Survivors, a creative arts organisation that works to increase the visibility of adult CSA survivors, said: 'Humour is a really big survival strategy for our community.' She added: 'For me personally, it was always a way of surviving, a way of being with unbearable pain and with the challenges and difficulties of having an experience that I couldn't talk about.' James MacKinnon from the charity Survivors UK also welcomed the course. 'It's not a one-size-fits-all approach but comedy can provide a powerful sense of agency and release, and a different perspective on difficult experiences,' he said.
