Why Is an Iran-Linked Center Still a UK Visa Sponsor?
An Islamic center under investigation over alleged links to Iran and four sanctioned Russian and Iranian organizations remain licensed to sponsor foreign workers in the UK.
The Home Office's visa sponsorship system has faced renewed scrutiny over the organizations permitted to sponsor foreign workers. Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images
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The Islamic Centre of England remains on the Home Office's register of licensed visa sponsors despite being the subject of a long-running Charity Commission inquiry into its governance and alleged links to the Iranian regime. The designation means the center remains eligible to sponsor foreign nationals for work visas or religious worker visas by issuing Certificates of Sponsorship, the mandatory documents required for many visa applications.
According to reports, the center has previously issued Certificates of Sponsorship, although a Home Office spokesman said it has not sponsored any workers since 2022. Political research company Cambridge Circus Research told Statement that, based on Home Office data obtained through a Freedom of Information request, the Islamic Centre of England has sponsored between 7–35 clergy members and 3–15 journalists or editors. The estimates reflect the Home Office's practice of not fully disclosing figures below five in its published data.
The Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry in 2022 after the center hosted events praising Qasem Soleimani, the late commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, who was subject to UK sanctions.
In 2025, the regulator found misconduct and/or mismanagement and issued a formal order requiring the charity to strengthen oversight of its governance, speakers and online activity. The statutory inquiry remains ongoing.
The center has also faced scrutiny over a "community bazaar", promoted as a "vibrant space for cultural interaction" that would strengthen "national and religious identity", where vendors were photographed selling Hezbollah-branded phone cases and key rings promoting the Iranian regime.
Tory MP and Shadow National Security Minister Alicia Kearns has called for the center to be immediately removed from the list.
The Islamic Centre of England is not the only organization whose ability to issue Certificates of Sponsorship is raising questions about the Home Office's system. An investigation by the Daily Mail, independent researcher David Shipley and the Centre for Migration Control found that four other organizations subject to UK sanctions also remain on the Home Office's register of licensed worker sponsors.
The four organizations are Russia's state-owned airline PJSC Aeroflot, cryptocurrency platform EXMO Exchange Ltd and the Iranian-linked banks Melli Bank Plc and Persia International Bank Plc. All four appear on the latest Home Office register as A-rated sponsors authorized under one or more worker visa routes.
Their inclusion means they remain licensed to issue Certificates of Sponsorship, the mandatory documents required by many foreign workers applying for UK visas. A sponsor license does not guarantee that a visa will be granted, nor does it override restrictions imposed under the UK's sanctions regime. However, the organizations' continued presence on the register raises questions about whether sponsor licenses are reviewed promptly when license holders become subject to UK sanctions.
Aeroflot has been under UK sanctions since May 2022. The UK Sanctions List says the airline is “obtaining a benefit from and supporting the government of Russia” through its role in the strategically important transport sector and notes that it is owned by the Russian state.
EXMO Exchange Ltd was sanctioned on 26 May 2026 after the Foreign Office said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect it had supported the Russian government by providing financial services, funds, economic resources or technology to an entity operating in a strategically important sector of the Russian economy.
Melli Bank Plc and Persia International Bank Plc were designated under the Iran nuclear sanctions regime on 29 September 2025. The government said Melli Bank had provided financial services or resources capable of contributing to Iranian nuclear proliferation. Persia International Bank was sanctioned for being owned or controlled by Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat, which the government said had provided similar support to Iran's nuclear activities.
The inclusion of all four organizations on the Home Office's sponsor register does not in itself establish that they have recently sponsored workers or that any visas have been issued in breach of UK sanctions.
The concerns raised by the Islamic Centre of England and other sanctioned Russian and Iranian organizations exemplify broader problems within the Home Office's sponsor license system. Researchers at Cambridge Circus Research have identified numerous examples of questionable sponsor license holders, including companies in the process of liquidation that were still able to issue Certificates of Sponsorship.
Charles Talbot, director of Cambridge Circus Research, told Statement: “Since 2020, there has been an explosion in the number of visa sponsor license holders. Under the guise of devising a more frictionless system, the previous government effectively devolved immigration to license holders. This means that unscrupulous license holders can do as they like with minimal checks. Easy solutions would include carefully monitoring risky businesses for suspicious visa sponsorship activity and more proactive enforcement against obvious abuses.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the findings highlighted what he described as abuse of the UK's skilled worker visa system. He argued the route was being used for jobs that did not meet the threshold of genuinely skilled employment and accused the government of allowing organizations that should never have been granted sponsor licenses to recruit overseas workers. In a viral video, he visited a series of South Asian supermarkets in London that have been able to sponsor workers despite the low-skilled nature of the work involved.
Philp called for any organizations found to have exploited the system to have their sponsor licenses revoked. He also said that foreign nationals sponsored by those organizations that remain in Britain on temporary work visas should be removed from the country, and called on ministers to conduct an urgent review of the scheme.
The findings are likely to intensify pressure on the Labour government to tighten its control of legal immigration, particularly where sanctioned organizations under regulatory investigation are able to remain visa sponsors.
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