Foreign
UK: Over 100 migrants face deportation as care agency is stripped of ability to endorse visas
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.
Foreigners employed by care agency Renaissance Personnel in Brighton have just weeks to find a new sponsor or return home before their legal right to be in the country runs out.
The Home Office revoked the licence of Renaissance to bring in migrant workers over concerns about whether vacancies were genuine and whether staff were being paid.
Muhammad, 45, brought his wife and four children to Britain from Pakistan in April 2023 after being promised work as one of Renaissance Personnel’s care assistants.
Renting a small terraced house, his children attend local schools and play in the property’s tiny concrete-walled garden.
Muhammad tells Sky News: “They were having the dream that, okay, we will move to the UK. We will have great education. Now they are worried.”
He says they ask him: “‘Baba, what we will do?’ Always we will be going here, there and now we don’t have anywhere.”
Muhammad claims he paid £19,000 to a recruitment agent before being sent a certificate of sponsorship and job offer from Renaissance Personnel.
Renaissance 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.
He begged the boss of Renaissance Personnel, Dennis Mawadzi, for an admin job and began working in the company’s Brighton office.
Never been inspected
Renaissance Personnel also operates in London and Buckinghamshire.
The Brighton arm was initially registered with the Care Quality Commission in January 2021 but has never been inspected.
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 Renaissance 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 Renaissance 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.”
Fajar, 20, arrived from Pakistan in June 2023 with a certificate of sponsorship from Renaissance and an offer of full-time care work.
He also claims he hasn’t been given the shifts he thought he’d secured: “I only worked for a few days, like three or four days in June. In last June. And after that I have not got any work.”
Fajar, 20, arrived from Pakistan in June 2023 but has not had the work he thought he had secured.
He says his parents gave £20,000 to an agent before he was sent his documents and he now needs to earn money in order to pay them back.
Fajar and Muhammad say they haven’t been paid by Renaissance Personnel for months – and they are not alone.
Sky News understands Mr Mawadzi 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.
Workers have ‘disappeared’
Fajar and Muhammad told Sky News that they have not been contacted by the Home Office about their status or any investigation into Renaissance Personnel.
Muhammad says the company has already lost contact with many of the people it sponsored to come here.
He says they have “disappeared” and could be working on the black market: “They may be doing cash jobs or maybe they are involved [in] some other activities here.”
Lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Mawadzi told Sky News they will be challenging the decision to revoke its sponsorship licence, adding: “Our client denies all allegations and refutes the claim that they have hired more foreign staff than they had hours to allocate.
“It is essential to comprehend the unique nature of the domiciliary care service industry, where hours are inherently variable and not guaranteed.
“At the time of recruitment, our client employed migrant workers to address a significant number of unfilled hours in Brighton and Hove…The exact number of foreign staff currently employed, and the guaranteed hours cannot be precisely determined due to the non-static and demand-driven nature of the industry.”
The lawyers add that a “delay in payment” to staff occurred because “our client business accounts and commercial finance facilities were closed without sufficient notice” adding “all staff will be fully paid”.
They say: “We understand the concern raised regarding allegations that staff members paid agents for certificates of sponsorship through Renaissance… our company strictly adheres to transparent recruitment processes…Upon becoming aware of such incidents, Renaissance promptly involves relevant authorities.”
They add: “We provide comprehensive safety and sensitivity training to all employees” and say the allegation of losing contact with workers is untrue, telling Sky News that workers “who do not report back to the company are straight away reported to the Home Office within 10 days… apart from workers who have been reported to the Home Office, the sponsor is in contact with the remaining workers.”
The previous government did not provide Sky News with an answer as to why Renaissance Personnel had been able to bring in so many foreign workers to the UK before its sponsorship licence was revoked.
Following the general election, a spokesperson for the Home Office told Sky News “exploitation of migrant care workers is completely unacceptable. Where exploitation does occur, we will take robust action.
“Care providers acting as sponsors for migrants in England must be registered with the industry regulator, the Care Quality Commission, to crack down on abuse within the sector.
“We are working hard across government and with the sector to ensure high standards across the immigration system, and to support care workers into alternative jobs when their sponsor has had their licence removed.”
Renaissance Personnel is not the only care agency under investigation for allegedly sponsoring foreign workers to come to the UK for jobs that do not exist.
The challenge for the new home secretary will be how to deal with people who find themselves in the country illegally because of a crackdown on who can sponsor workers to come into Britain.
No fewer than 205 Nigerians were deported from Canada in June 2026 as Canadian authorities intensified enforcement of the country’s immigration laws, according to official figures released by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
Immigration removal statistics published by the CBSA showed that 10,607 individuals were removed from Canada during the month, with Nigerians ranking among the top 10 nationalities affected by the exercise.
The figures indicate that Nigerians accounted for nearly two per cent of all removals carried out in June.
India recorded the highest number of deportations, with 3,323 nationals removed, followed by Mexico with 1,573. The United States accounted for 372 deportees, while Colombia and Romania recorded 354 and 293 removals respectively.
Other countries with significant numbers of nationals deported included Bangladesh, with 227, and Pakistan, with 207.
Explaining the rationale behind the removals, the CBSA said enforcing immigration laws was critical to protecting the integrity of Canada’s immigration system.
“Removing individuals who do not have the right to enter or stay in Canada is essential to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s immigration program and to ensuring fairness for those who come to this country lawfully,” the agency stated.
The latest figures underscore Canada’s continued enforcement against individuals found to have no legal right to remain in the country, as authorities seek to ensure compliance with the nation’s immigration laws.
The sentence was handed down on Friday by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after Adewale pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud.
Announcing the sentence in a statement on Friday, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, David Metcalf, said Adewale was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
“United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Afeez Olatunji Adewale, 27, of Nigeria was sentenced today by United States District Judge Joel Slomsky to 60 months in prison and three years of supervised release for money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud related to the sexual extortion and death of a young man in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,” the statement read.
According to Metcalf, Adewale was arrested in Nigeria on August 17, 2023, during a joint operation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeting sexual extortion suspects preying on victims in the United States.
Metcalf noted that the convict was extradited to the US in February 2026 with the assistance of the US authorities and the Nigerian government.
Following his extradition, Adewale was arraigned and subsequently pleaded guilty in April this year.
Commenting on the conviction, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Philadelphia, Wayne A. Jacobs, said the sentence demonstrates that offenders cannot escape justice by operating outside the United States.
“Today’s sentencing illustrates criminals cannot evade justice, even outside of our borders,” Jacobs said.
“This final sentencing is the result of diligent investigative work and close coordination with our domestic and international law enforcement partners.
“Most importantly, today’s sentence represents our continued commitment to seeking justice for victims and their loved ones. Let today’s sentencing send a clear message: alongside our partners here and abroad, the FBI remains committed to identifying, locating, and bringing to justice those who prey on our communities.”
Also reacting, the chief of the Abington Township Police Department, Patrick Molloy, praised the collaboration between local and federal authorities.
“We are grateful for the federal agents and prosecutors who worked so hard to bring those responsible for this heinous crime to justice.
“This could have been anyone’s child, and while this prosecution may provide some measure of relief, the pain and suffering for this family will never go away,” Molloy said.
The US authorities said Adewale was the last of three Nigerian suspects convicted in connection with the sextortion case.
His co-defendant, Samuel Abiodun, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in June 2025.
Another accomplice, Imoleayo Aina, also known as “Alice Dave,” pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, interstate threat to injure reputation, receiving proceeds of extortion, money laundering conspiracy, and wire fraud, and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in October 2025.
“I hope that their arrests, extradition, and prosecution make clear that the DOJ will go after those terrorising our young people — no matter where the scammers and sextortionists may be.
“Though this case is now closed, our thoughts will remain with a family and community forever changed,” Metcalf noted.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has finalised a new rule limiting most foreign students and exchange visitors to a maximum stay of four years, unless they obtain an extension from the federal government, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The new regulation, announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ends the long-standing “duration of status” policy, which allowed international students to remain in the United States for the length of their academic programmes, provided they complied with visa requirements.
The restriction applies to holders of F-1 student visas and J-1 exchange visitor visas.
According to The Washington Post, the DHS acknowledged concerns that some students may struggle to complete their academic programmes within the new timeframe, noting that many bachelor’s degree programmes take more than four years to complete, while doctoral programmes often require significantly longer.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the change was necessary to strengthen immigration enforcement and reduce visa overstays.
“For nearly half a century, the outdated ‘duration of status’ system has compromised national security and created an environment ripe for immigration fraud,” Mullin said.
The policy has drawn criticism from NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which described the move as unnecessary and warned that it would create uncertainty for international students.
“DHS’ decision to end Duration of Status is a misguided and unnecessary policy shift that injects uncertainty, bureaucracy, and fear into a system that has long worked effectively,” NAFSA Executive Director Fanta Aw said.
The new rule comes as many US colleges and universities continue to face challenges in attracting international students amid tighter immigration policies and visa restrictions introduced by the Trump administration.
A coroner’s court in the United Kingdom has ruled that a 27-year-old Nigerian woman, Beatrice Solomon, died by suicide after battling mental health challenges linked to personal difficulties.
Beatrice, who relocated from Nigeria to the UK on a skilled worker visa in November 2023, was found unresponsive in her home on Norris Road, Stanfield.
According to a report by The Sentinel on Sunday, the inquest heard that her husband, Damian Butler, had left home for his delivery job at about 4:30 pm on the day of the incident before returning approximately two hours later to use the toilet, where he discovered his wife unresponsive.
A police officer, PC Hinchliffe, told the court that emergency responders arrived shortly afterwards, but Beatrice was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:21pm.
According to the report, the investigators ruled out any third-party involvement in her death.
During the hearing, Butler told the court that his wife had struggled with her mental health over the past year, which he attributed to ongoing issues involving Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
He also disclosed that he later became aware that Beatrice had made two previous attempts to take her life.
“It is clear to me that Beatrice had researched and planned how to take her life. I can only extend my sincere condolences to Beatrice’s family and friends,” the coroner said.
Beatrice, who worked as a carer in the UK, is survived by her husband, a son, and her siblings.
This tragedy highlights the emotional and mental health challenges some migrants may face while adjusting to life in a new country.
According to the World Health Organisation, research from various countries has shown that some migrants face increased mental health risks due to factors such as separation from their families, financial stress, uncertainty, discrimination, and cultural barriers.
The WHO stated that the findings underscore the need for accessible mental health support and timely interventions for migrants experiencing psychological distress.
Israel recently shared intelligence with the US about a new Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump, according to a report.
The latest assassination plan, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, comes after years of Iranian regime threats to kill Trump as revenge for the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani by US forces.
When asked for comment, the White House referred The Post to Trump’s Wednesday remarks at the NATO summit in Ankara.
Trump traveled to Turkey on his new Qatari “palace in the sky” plane, but took a different Air Force One home. The plane switch was a strategic “distraction” to keep the commander-in-chief safe, the White House said.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who accompanied the president to the summit, was instructed not to travel to Israel as planned shortly before Trump chose to switch planes in Turkey. It’s unclear if the Iranian threat extended to the war secretary.
Trump terminates remaining members of Election Assistance Commission after landmark Supreme Court ruling expanded his powers
The Journal report did not include details of the alleged assassination plot.
The Israelis tipped the US off about the plot earlier this week. The specific threat was not being tracked by US officials before Israel’s warning and has yet to be vetted, CNN reported.
A banner against President Trump is held in Tehran as mourners gather on the day of burial of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The warning comes as Trump’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become somewhat fraught amid the Iran war.
Trump on June 1 told Netanyahu he was “f–king crazy” over his attacks on Lebanon, fearing they would provoke more war with Iran.
”You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” a US official summarized Trump’s comments, which the president later confirmed to The Post.
The world leaders have spoken on at least two occasions since the tense June 1 call, including Thursday, and have agreed to meet “in the near future,” according to Netanyahu’s office.
Banners vowing revenge against Trump were on full display in Tehran this week as Iranians prepared to bury late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war.
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