A Sudanese national has boasted about illegally earning cash in the UK by brazenly spraying £10 and £20 notes in his taxpayer-paid hotel room.
Omer Muhammad, 34, was in France posing for photos by the Eiffel Tower just before he was seen crossing the English Channel in a small boat packed with migrants.
Footage posted on social media now shows Mr Muhammad grinning as he sprays a wad of cash in his free hotel in Derby.
The video, originally posted on Mr Muhammad’s TikTok account, is accompanied by rap music and shows him throwing the money on the floor, sitting in it and dancing.
Another clip filmed by Mr Muhammad showed a Border Force cutter arriving to rescue migrants and take them to the UK.
Footage posted on social media now shows Omer Muhammad grinning as he sprays a wad of cash in his free hotel in Derby
Mr Muhammad, 34, was in France posing for photos by the Eiffel Tower just before he was seen crossing the English Channel in a small boat packed with migrants
The clips are expected to fuel fears that the astonishing ease with which migrants can illegally earn cash in Britain is encouraging more migrants to attempt the perilous Channel crossing.
The Mail On Sunday tracked down Mr Muhammad to the Midland Hotel in Derby, where he has been living for the past year and a half, alongside 200 other asylum seekers.
He said he works in takeaways and building sites, earning up to £60 per day. He added that half of the migrants in the hotel work illegally, saying: ‘Plenty of work in food delivery.’
When asked about the money he was throwing on the floor in the TikTok video, Mr Muhammad claimed the cash belonged to a friend.
He said he left his wife behind in Darfur, Sudan, and headed to Libya by land, before boarding a migrant boat to Malta.
After working there illegally for three years, he flew to Milan with an Italian passport bought on the black market, and then headed to Paris by train, posting Instagram photos in front of the Eiffel Tower.
He then went to Calais, where he boarded a small boat to Britain after paying a Kurdish smuggling gang £600.
The video, originally posted on Mr Muhammad’s TikTok account, is accompanied by rap music and shows the man throwing the money on the floor, sitting in it and dancing
A clip filmed by Mr Muhammad showed a Border Force cutter arriving to rescue migrants and take them to the UK
Channel migrants living in taxpayer-funded hotels are earning up to £1,500 a month working illegally for fast food delivery firms like Deliveroo – despite a Minister demanding the practice be stamped out.
A Mail on Sunday investigation today exposed how couriers working for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats are secretly subcontracting out their deliveries to migrants who are banned from working, in exchange for a weekly fee of up to £100.
They are able to do so as the tech giants behind the UK’s £13 billion food delivery business allow low-paid ‘substitute’ riders – who they have not vetted – to work for them.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick last night branded the practice ‘completely unacceptable’ and warned it is encouraging further illegal migration.
He last month demanded the food delivery giants ‘end the use’ of unverified riders to ‘prevent the scourge of illegal working’.
Last night, after the MoS presented evidence of its investigation, Deliveroo said it would change its policy and introduce checks for substitute riders next year.
Our exposé reveals a booming black economy – with one migrant admitting that he and more than 100 fellow asylum seekers living at a Home Office-funded hotel are working illegally, many of them as takeaway couriers. The revelations come days after Home Office officials admitted they do not know the whereabouts of 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice said: ‘Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats have been turning a blind eye to illegal working by asylum seekers on a massive scale in the UK. They should be ashamed of themselves and they should immediately stop all substitution accounts. The Government must pass urgent legislation with heavy fines on these delivery companies if they transgress.’
Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats allow their couriers to rent out their jobs, telling them they are responsible for checking that their ‘substitutes’ are allowed to work in the UK and have no unspent criminal convictions. But many couriers fail to carry out any checks and let migrants work illegally, in exchange for a weekly fee.
The MoS has discovered that hundreds of delivery accounts are available to rent on Facebook Marketplace, with riders willing to provide work to illegal migrants.
Earlier this year, researchers at Nottingham Trent and Heriot-Watt universities found migrants working as food couriers earn between £900 and £1,500 a month.
Deliveroo said: ‘We have introduced facial recognition technology which will help to counter any abuse on the platform and… we plan to strengthen this further with a registration process and right to work checks for substitutes.’
Just Eat said: ‘Self-employed independent couriers have the legal right to use a substitute. Under the UK’s employment laws, the account-holder is responsible for ensuring their substitute meets the necessary standards to deliver on our network.’
Uber Eats said: ‘All couriers must pass a criminal background check, be over the age of 18 and hold a valid right to work in the UK.’
Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo all said they were ‘working closely’ with the Government, and that any courier found to not meet their criteria would immediately be removed from their network.