Albanian migrants who have entered the UK illegally are paying smugglers up to £30,000 to be provided with fake families, allowing them to stay in the country, an investigation has revealed.
The migrants are being offered sham marriages over TikTok by gangs who have recruited British or EU single mothers and their children.
The investigation found TikTok videos are being targeted at prisoners attempting to fight deportation from the UK as well as those who have entered the country illegally.
The latest TikTok scam comes after it was revealed Albanian gangs had launched an advertising blitz offering stowaway trips to migrants trying to come to the UK as well as channel crossings.
More than a quarter of the 45,755 people who crossed the Channel in small boats last year came from Albania.
Albanian migrants are being offered sham marriages over TikTok by gangs who have recruited British or EU single mothers. Pictured: An dinghy carrying migrants crosses the shipping lane in the English Channel, July 22, 2021
The Telegraph reported that one TikTok account was posting clips offering to act as a middle-man to link migrants with the gang’s recruited mothers.
The account, created on May 10, also reportedly offered the service of finding guarantors who would provide fake UK addresses.
These services could help an illegal migrant receive an immigration bail, something they can only currently do if they have a place to live in the UK.
The Telegraph reported the gang’s advert as saying: ‘We have boys and girls for marriages. Guarantors for boys who are in prison [immigration detention centres] Ladies with children. Register of fatherhood. Applications to get documents from Albania with foreign girls.’
Another advert read: ‘Application to get documents as a stepfather or a stepmother. It is very simple’.
A third advert read: ‘To all the interested people getting documents in the UK number below the profile. As a form of payment, we accept apartments or cars in exchange for the documents.’
As part of the investigation, an Albanian TV reporter responded to the third ad. They posed as a potential client acting on behalf of a brother who had illegally entered the UK.
They were given a list of prices. ‘£30.000 for a woman with a child,’ the gang account responded. ‘£5.000 deposit then £25,000 when you get the certificate with your name as the father of that child.’
‘£20.000 to be registered as a stepfather. £5,000 deposit and £15,000 when you get papers. £25,000 for marriage. You pay £10,000 then when you get documents £15,000.’
A TikTok ad found earlier this year saw criminals demanding up to £18,000 a head and boast of ‘100 per cent success’
Other TikToks found earlier this year offered the chance to dodge the returns crackdown by flying to the UK with fake passports
TikTok has now removed and banned the accounts. A spokesperson told The Telegraph: ‘Our Community Guidelines are clear that we prohibit content that attempts to facilitate human smuggling and trafficking.
‘We have removed the content shared and permanently banned the accounts for violating these guidelines.’
A Home Office spokesperson told the publication: ‘Social media companies, such as TikTok, have a responsibility to pull down posts and stop content that promotes illegal and criminal activity – we take abuse of the spouse and partner immigration routes very seriously.
‘We will not hesitate to take enforcement action against individuals found to be in a sham marriage or civil partnership including cancelling their leave and removing them from the UK.’
About 13,000 Albanian migrants crossed the channel in dinghies last year, compared with just 50 in 2020 and 800 in 2021. Many of them were young men.
Numbers dropped off as winter approached but officials now expect a surge again in the spring as the weather improves.
The news comes after it was revealed last year that Albanians were more likely than any other nationality to use fake marriages to stay in the UK.
A total of 365 wedding scammers from 60 countries exploited a post-Brexit scheme that let EU citizens and their other halves the right to remain.
According to Home Office figures, 146 were Albanian nationals exploiting the scheme to remain in the UK.
