“Gutter press for the gullible.”
In yet another sensationalist front page, the Daily Mail published an ‘exclusive’ alleging that ‘corrupt immigration advisers’ are charging up to £22,000 per person to help underqualified foreign workers secure UK skilled worker visas. The paper claims this amounts to a cash-for-visas scam that could be ‘worse than the small boats crisis.’
‘Visas scam that makes mockery of PM’s pledge on migration. Exposed by the Mail – fixers who take cash to help unskilled workers fiddle the system,’ read the headline.
The Mail’s story plays straight into a narrative that blames migrants for systemic problems. While the paper rails against so-called “unskilled” migrants gaming the system, the exploitation by UK-based employers who actively recruit cheap labour while lobbying for looser controls, takes a back seat.
According to the Mail’s undercover investigation, a managing partner at a Leicester-based immigration firm admitted to tricking the Home Office into believing employers need a certificate of sponsorship to take on overseas workers, organising firms to advertise the positions in the UK, helping employ immigrant workers who will officially earn about £3,000 a month to meet minimum salary requirements for the visas – but in reality they will receive only about £900 a month as they will have to hand the rest back to their boss, and securing the visas for applicants with little or only high school education in their home countries.
The adviser reportedly claimed the government turns a blind eye, stating: “The Home Office is just interested in the money.”
If true, these revelations should prompt serious scrutiny of the companies and regulatory bodies involved. But instead of calling out the corporate actors driving exploitation, the Mail focuses on demonising the migrants, many of whom are victims of this corrupt system, not perpetrators.
But many readers weren’t fooled by the Daily Mail’s attempt to manufacture outrage. Social media lit up with mocking responses:
“The owner of the Daily Manure is Johnathan Harmsworth he nor his company pay any tax and also receive subsidies from the tax payer. Now that’s a real parasite,” was one comment.
Others reminded that this very immigration system was designed by the same government the Mail often defends:
“I would be asking this newspaper for evidence… otherwise , it’s lying … where did this newspaper get this information. The right wing is throwing everything it has at this deal (the one their poster boy negotiated) .. take everything this paper says with a huge pinch of salt,” was another comment.
Another comment questioned the entire framing of the story: “Why isn’t the headline and front-page article about businesses that hire cheap migrant labour rather than immigrants that cheat the immigration system ! Under the last government who were probably funded by the business owners of the companies hiring these workers and who are now funding reform even more cheap foreign workers were allowed to undercut British workers, not to mention all the jobs outsourced overseas by these same multi-millionaires! Why don’t you report what is really happening instead of pulling the wool over workers eyes! The Daily Mail is the scam!”
One reader summed it up: “Well the Tories did such a great job didn’t they? Gutter press for the gullible.”
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