In order to fill staffing shortfalls, UK jails have resorted to hiring prison guards from Nigeria and other nations.
The Telegraph said Thursday that many of these new recruits, especially Nigerians, are having trouble finding lodgings, with some choosing to camp or sleep in their cars in order to save money on rent.
The report said that after a rule change in 2023 added jail officers to the list of qualified occupations, the UK prison service is now sponsoring skilled worker visas for foreign hires for the first time.
Nigerians make up a large portion of these new recruits, some of whom transferred from other visa pathways to the prison force.
According to the Prison Officers Association, there have been instances of Nigerian recruits showing up at UK prisons expecting to be housed.
Mark Fairhurst, the POA president, told of one recruit who drove 70 miles a day from Huddersfield to Nottingham before deciding it would be less expensive to sleep in his car outside the prison.
At another site, some officers reportedly set up camp in a wooded area close to the prison after learning they would have to find housing on their own.
“We have got problems with people who turn up at the gates with cases in tow and with their families saying to the staff: ‘Where is the accommodation?’,” Fairhurst said.
According to authorities from the nation’s Ministry of Justice, 250 foreign nationals have been hired into the UK jail system thus far following verification and Zoom interviews.
According to reports, a sizable percentage of the 3,500 monthly applicants in 2023 were from Africa.
Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors Association, said the increase was due to word-of-mouth advertising by Nigerians who were already employed in the UK.
“It’s turned into an approach that has been promoted online by the expat Nigerian community,” Wheatley said.
He did, however, recognize certain obstacles, such as linguistic hurdles and trouble assimilating new hires into rural areas.
The UK jail service maintains that its hiring and training procedures are sound in spite of these problems.
A Prison Service spokesman told the Telegraph that “all staff, regardless of nationality undergo robust assessments and training before they work in prisons. Our strengthened vetting process roots out those who fall below our high standards.”