British Police have unearthed a visa racket carried out by a British Airways supervisor through an immigration loophole. India and the UK are jointly investigating the case and are working together to find the accused who is on a run with his British Airways ground staff partner.
The visa scam is reported to be around 3 million pounds which was carried out for five years. The unmanned 24-year-old accused worked at the Terminal 5 of the Heathrow Airport in London. He charged 25,000 pounds per trip from his clients and paving the way for asylum in a destination of their choice through an immigration loophole.
The accused was arrested on January 6 but was granted bail. He is now on the run in India where he has multiple properties worth crores to his name. In many countries, immigration is now being done by the airline staff rather than by other officials. The accused took advantage of this loophole by taking his customers to the destination of their choice.
The British Airways supervisor would arrange a UK visa and then take his customers anywhere they wanted via British Airways. Through forged documents, the accused would then help the granting of asylum. Canadian authorities first detected the pattern and raised a red flag.
The Sun Newspaper quoted a source saying, “As part of his fiddle, he got clients, most from India, to fly to the UK on a temporary visitor visa where he arranged for them to jet elsewhere. Other clients were UK-based asylum claimants who feared being returned to their country of origin. Canadian authorities raised the alarm after years of BA flights to Toronto and Vancouver on which arrivals would immediately declare asylum.
He exploited a loophole knowing that immigration checks are no longer carried out by officials but are left to airline staff. By inputting wrong data, and claiming eTA documents had been secured, he got people to countries they had no permission to enter in the first place. On arrival, the bogus passengers would shred their documents and claim asylum.”
Last Updated Feb 27, 2024, 6:51 PM IST
