The Home Office is investigating a lottery-funded Zimbabwean group in Birmingham believed to be responsible for enabling illegal immigrants to settle in the UK after a BBC Radio investigative programme highlighted its activities, writes Wale Azeez.
Journalists from Radio Five Live’s Five Live Report tracked and infiltrated a group called the Zimbabwean Community in the UK, which the programme alleged coached illegal immigrants – some of them henchmen of ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front – to pose as victims of the regime and members of the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, when interviewed by the Home Office.
ZCUK, which allegedly received more than £1,000 of lottery funding, also forged Zimbabwean passports for money, to help the holders convince the Home Office that they had just flown into the UK.
Five Live reporter Matthew Chapman told Press Gazette the BBC was sending tapes and notes to the Home Office.
“There’s been some fairly widespread manipulation of the Home Office. I will be pushing this to see if anything gets done,” he said.
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