Migrant hubs are being used to provide channels into Britain through Home Office approvals of dubious firms as "licensed sponsors."
The Home Office has licensed 118,000 firms as "sponsors of skilled workers" into the UK.
GB News, alongside Stand for Our Sovereignty and Brexit Facts4EU, has taken a look at some of the stranger jobs being used as migrant hubs.
Five years ago, the total number of organisations officially registered with the Home Office was around 30,000.
Today there are 118,000 of them, of all kinds.
These are organisations approved by the Home Office as sponsors of so-called "skilled workers," who then get visas to enter the country legally.
The extent to which these migrants are checked up on is not reported in any of the reports GB News, Facts4Eu or Stand for our Sovereignty were able to find, but there is an enforcement arm - so it is possible that such records exist.
The charts has shown the number of sponsoring organisations has skyrocketed
|FACTS4EU/STAND FOR OUR SOVEREIGNTY
But when broken down by sponsor, a damning picture of the type of job given out as a visa pathway becomes clear.
More than 2,100 cafes, restaurants and hotels are registered sponsors - by far the highest among "unusual" sectors, though perhaps a testament to UK's £77billion-valued food service market and £27.5bilion-valued hotel market.
However, below this, the picture is markedly different, with five eyebrow-raising jobs up for grabs.
Almost 1,000 corner shops and mini-markets are registered sponsors, while around 700 halal or "non-traditional British" food companies are signed up.
In third place among the "unusual five" sits takeaways and catering firms, which account for just under 500 registered sponsors.
Around 400 minicabs and delivery firms are Home Office-registered - ahead of the fifth-placed hairdressers and barbershops, almost 300 of which are allowed to brig in "skilled" workers from abroad.
The representation of jobs per sponsoring organisations
|FACTS4EU/STAND FOR OUR SOVEREIGNTY
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The approval rate for skilled workers
|FACTS4EU/STAND FOR OUR SOVEREIGNTY
The number of new applications per quarter to become a "registered sponsor" of a "skilled worker" in the first 12 months since Labour came to power has skyrocketed.
In the third quarter of 2024, this stood at 9,139. In the final quarter of that year, that number of new applications dipped slightly to 8,887.
In the first quarter of 2025, the number of new applications dipped again to 8,499. However, by the second quarter, this had risen again to 8,664.
The total of new applications for registered sponsors stands at 35,189.
In the first 12 months of Labour, out of 35,189 applications, 28,019 were approved.
This led to a success rate of 79.6 per cent.
One of the spreadsheets the Home Office keeps - but does not publish as part of its usual quarterly output - is a list of the 118,000 organisations it has approved as sponsors of skilled workers.
The Stand for Our Sovereignty and Facts4EU analysis included a review of this very long list.