Living in UK: How Nigerians survive through prostitution, arrange marriage, drug business; How Employment agencies short-change them

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

In recent times, media organisations as well as Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have tried in their own little way to highlight the plight of African immigrants in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK). The picture being painted of the predicament of most Nigerians in the UK is so disturbing and alarming that it leaves one wondering why Nigerians have chosen to subject themselves to such unnecessary hardship. They will readily justify their quest to jet out of Nigeria with the old cliché that the economic situation in Nigeria has made it impossible for one to secure meaningful employment. Hence, they relish on the delusion that in UK, there are jobs for any willing hand.

But if the information emanating from the home country of the Nigeria’s erstwhile colonial overlords, the UK, is anything to go by, then it will be right to conclude that most immigrants go to UK oblivious of what awaits them. Life in the UK is tough, rough and better imagined than experienced.

When Sunday encountered an Edo State-born Charles Oshingbeme, who has spent over 20 years of his life in the UK, he opened a can of worm. Oshingbeme, now a Migration and Security Consultant left the shores of Nigeria for the Queen’s country in 1990 at a teen age of 19.  Having paid his dues and seen England in her prosperous days, he volunteered to open up on the many woes of Nigerian immigrants in the UK.

Though he also left Nigeria for greener pastures in the UK just like many others, he has been able to establish himself as a consultant having sat and got his A’ levels, first degree and masters degree all in the UK.

UK yesterday and today

Looking back to the 1990s when he went to England, he said: “In 1990, England was a bit more immigrant-friendly; the cost of living then was relatively cheap. A room for students was just £15 per week. You could survive on £40 per week as a student including accommodation and feeding and other things. Food was cheap as well and there were also jobs. Students could get part time as well as full time jobs. And during the long vacations, long summer holidays, you could get a decent job that would pay you well to save enough to basically pay almost half of your school fees. The immigration laws were very relaxed and flexible. I have seen the system change and evolve with different governments in place; I have tasted the policies of the Tory government of Margret Thatcher and John Major. I have also witnessed labour prime ministers starting like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameroun.”

But today, the story is different. It is all about hardship, crime, racism, unemployment and sundry immigration laws that are harsh and unfavourable to African migrants in the UK. Narrating how Nigerians get entrapped in the biting economy of England, he said: “Today, UK for an average migrant is very expensive and challenging. The biggest mistake you will make as a migrant is to go to England without a proper documentation. The mistake most migrants or would-be migrants make is to think that if you get a six-month visa to go to UK, then you can live there; that is a lie. You can never survive on a six-month visa in the UK because it is clearly stated on that visa that there are restrictions such as employment restriction. You must never depend on or expect the government to give you any kind of financial assistance for you to survive.”

Although, it is so stated on the visa, most Nigerians would dismiss it with a wave of hand thinking that just like in Nigeria, there would always be a way out. “So, majority of the emigrants in the UK fall into this category. They come into UK with a six-month visa with the belief that they will be able to convert the six-month visa status to a different kind of visa status either by getting married to a UK national or by becoming a student. But that is not the case,” he submitted.

According to Osingbeme, the situation is made more critical with the influx of other European nationals into the UK. This has worsened the chances of African migrants getting jobs, thereby dimming their hope of survival the more.

He said: “I have seen the European Union (EU) expanding and with that expansion, many EU nationals are coming into the UK. And that has put a very big strain on the UK labour market, which has made getting a job for both regular and irregular migrants almost impossible today. Back in the 1990s, a basic room was £15 a week but now, the same room goes for £80 or £90 a week. If you are paying up to that amount for one room in a week and you cannot get a decent job that pays about £200 a week, how can you cope? Most of the jobs that migrants get these days pay them about £120 a week; so you are left with about £30 to survive in a week. Today in England, there is no way you can survive on £30 a week, that is if you have a job that pays you £120 a week and your rent is £90 a week.

Getting a job

One may be tempted to ask why it is hard for Nigerian immigrants to get job in the UK. But findings have shown that there is a law in England, which restricts employers of labour. If you employ an illegal migrant, you will either pay £4000 or £5000 as fine. That means that if you own a factory and you employ 20 or 30 illegal migrants, the factory will go bankrupt by the time the owner is through with the fines for the offence.  This is one of the major reasons employers prefer EU nationals who come to the UK visa-free and who have the right to take an employment without any restriction.

“So, naturally, the employers in the UK will favour the EU nationals. Most of the African migrants are undocumented; that is to say that even if you have a student visa, you are only allowed to work for 20 hours a week. And if employers know that you are on employment restriction, even though you have a student visa, why would they take the risk of employing you whose working hours are restricted when they can employ an EU national who has no restriction and can come in, take the same job without worrying about their visa status? That is why most of the factories in the UK are no longer employing the undocumented migrants. The documented ones - that is those who have the papers to stay in England also get punished because the average employer will now see you as the same. They will not take the risk of employing you and later find out that you don’t have the right residency papers,” he said.

However, since Nigerians cannot get jobs because they don’t have the right papers, they have replicated the ‘Oluwole’ market in England where they forge papers just to survive. But even with that ingenuity, they still face discrimination because no employer will like to take chances.

“Because of the survival needs of these migrants, you have a black market system like the ‘Oluwole’ market in Lagos, Nigeria; it exists in England as well. This is where many of the undocumented migrants procure illegitimate documentations for them to secure a job. Now, even though the onus is on the employers to verify the documents, most times, they don’t because of the time it takes. So, when they employ many of these migrants, regular or irregular and the immigration authorities do their raids or checks on their visa status and discover many of them with fake papers, the employer will still bear the cost. It also carries a jail term. If you are arrested as an illegal migrant working in a factory, you will go to court because you have presented a document, which bears the seal or the crown of the British government. It carries a prison term besides deportation and it could be anything from six months to one or two years. And most times, the offender is also deported back to Nigeria,” he said.

Prostitution, drug peddling, arrange marriage as survival instincts

As a result of the difficulty in getting jobs by the African immigrants, which includes Nigerians, they resort to prostitution, drug peddling and sundry illegalities to survive.

Commenting on this illegal survival instinct, Oshingbeme said: “When you are living in the UK as a lady and you don’t have the right papers to live in the country, you will need to survive. You have rents and bills to pay and you don’t have a job, how do you cope? This is where prostitution comes in. Most of the clubs in London for example have a very high number of young African ladies in them; they are not just there to catch fun but to solicit for customers. You find that in the background, prostitution is a thriving business within this African community because of their irregular visa status. You also have the issue of drugs. Many of the young ladies and even men become prey to the drug barons in England who will entice them with money to do different things for them. Many of them have been jailed for being drug mail. And part of it has to do with visa status which is not regular and they want to regularise it and in doing that, they need money to get the papers regularised.

“Another trend is the issue of arranged marriage between African migrants with irregular papers and nationals of the EU. This is a thriving industry and many people are getting themselves involved in it just for them to get their papers regularised and stay in the UK. We have had cases of people paying up to £15, 000 to marry a lady from Spain, Greece or Germany because once you marry an EU national, that confers on you the right to stay and work there.”

The ultimate price

Most Nigerians have died trying to survive in the UK. Speaking on the factors responsible for some of the deaths, Oshingeme said: “We have had cases of people who died trying to escape being arrested and possibly deported by the UK authorities. We had cases where such people jumped through the window from an upstairs and died. We have had cases where the British police have had to apply force on those resisting arrest and in the process; some of them have lost their lives.”

Employment agencies exploit Nigerians

According to Oshigbeme, Nigerians engage in all kinds of menial jobs ranging from sweeping the street to mortuary attendant where they are paid peanut that hardly sustains them. That is because they get such jobs through employment agents who pay them anything, knowing full well that they cannot protest because they don’t have the right papers. He said: “People are involved in road sweeping; people do security jobs in the eateries or factories. The company don’t employ them direct; they go through employment agencies. So, you may not really know how much they pay the agencies. People are paid as low as £2 per hour; some others get up to £5 or £10 per hour. You have people doing the care job where they take care of the infirm and old people in the UK. If you have your right papers, it is easier to get a decent care job and get paid directly from your employer. But in a situation where you have to go through an agency and the agency knows that your papers are not in order and they believe that they are trying to massage you into the system, then you are at their mercy. So, you take whatever you are offered and in some cases, some agencies will owe you up to four months salaries, which they will not pay. They know that you don’t have the papers, so you cannot report them to the authorities. How much you are paid depends on your luck and your negotiation ability and the kind of menial jobs. Some work in the mortuaries.”

Advice to intending migrants from Nigeria

Oshingeme’s advice to Nigerians is: “No matter what this country is going through, your home is your home. You will never be a first class citizen in a foreign land, no matter how long you live there. You suffer from identity; you have issues of racism. If you have a good paying job in Nigeria, why would you want to leave it and go to England to start running around without the right papers to live there. Even if you have the right papers the economy is challenging for every one there now. It is not just having the right papers; you must have the skills as well. I know more than 1000 Nigerian graduates with the right papers living in England but they cannot get job because Nigeria degree in England are not recognised by the employers. So, you can be a graduate and you have the British residency, but you will still not get the job. So, if you want to go to England, go on holiday and come back.

“We must begin to support the NGOs that work to address the challenges of migrants – regular or irregular. My friend, Osita Osemene runs the Patriotic Citizens Initiative; he has a firsthand personal experience of what it means to be an irregular migrant and what he is doing in Nigeria needs to be commended. We must educate the ones back home about the challenges they will face if they go abroad.”