Men offered £10k in scam to pose as migrant baby fathers

BRITISH men are being offered £10,000 to fraudulently claim to be the fathers of migrant mothers’ babies in a citizenship scam, it has emerged.

Fraudsters are using Facebook and other websites to invite men to add their name to a birth certificate – meaning a child can obtain British citizenship and their mother can stay.

It is thought that the “citizenship daddy” scam involves thousands of cases across the UK.

An investigation by BBC Newsnight saw a researcher go undercover to pose as a pregnant woman who was in the UK illegally.

One agent, who used the name Thai and did not advertise on Facebook, offered a “full package” for £11,000 and claimed he had multiple British men who could pretend to be her child’s father. He said the process was “very easy” and he “would do everything” to get the child a British passport.

He introduced the researcher to a British man, Andrew, who took selfies with her and said he would receive an £8,000 cut from the fee in return for adding his name to the birth certificate.

Newsnight found dozens of posts on the topic on some Vietnamese Facebook groups for job-seekers, including one which read: “I’m 4 months pregnant. I desperately need a citizenship daddy aged between 25-45.”

Another agent, calling herself Thi Kim, promised the researcher that she had helped thousands of pregnant migrant women and said she could stay if she pays “ten thousand for the dad”.

“All the men I use were born here and have never registered for any babies before,” Thi Kim unwittingly told the BBC. “I know how to handle everything. You won’t have to worry about not having a passport. It will definitely be granted.”

One woman told the programme how she paid £9,000 for a man 30 years her senior to appear on her baby’s certificate, only meeting him three times. Another paid £10,000 only to find the fake father had lied about his immigration status.

Under Home Office rules, a parent can apply for a family visa if their child is living in the UK and already a British citizen. The parent must have either sole parental responsibility or shared responsibility, but the child’s other parent or carer must be a British citizen.

The Home Office said “a birth certificate alone may not be sufficient evidence of proof of paternity” and “additional evidence may be requested”.

Meta, the owner of Facebook, said “the solicitation of adoptions or birth certificate fraud on Facebook” was not allowed and would be removed.