Going abroad often seems like the big break that many people look for. There’s the promise of better earnings and better life. And in most cases, moving abroad carries the hope that you will have build enough savings to get by when you return.
The unspoken truth, though, is that this is not always the case. As is frequently happening, moving abroad can also prove to be disastrous. Here is a bad experience that one brave Kenyan woman opened up on after moving from Kenya to UK:
I left Kenya last year for the United Kingdom. Before I left, I was working for a company and unfortunately, I was duped into taking a loan for a man I was in a commitment with. The loan was about Sh. 2.8 million.
I consolidated and bought it off from the bank to a Sacco that was associated with the company I was working for.
I had been suffering from the recoveries and so when I bought it off to the Sacco and got something small in my pocket, I was happy to try out something else for myself. This turned out to be the worst mistake of my life.
By the time I left Kenya for the United Kingdom, my loan balances were almost a million shillings. I took this step because it looked like I was going to work and pay a loan for someone who lied to me and later committed suicide leaving me to pay the loan by myself.
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When I arrived in the United Kingdom, the company that had sponsored me did not have enough hours and I held on to hope that things would open up.
However, with the rule in UK that you can only work in the care sector if you are in the country on the skilled worker visa and can only work 20 hours a week if you’re not working for your sponsor, I stayed almost half an year without work; getting one shift a week or even none at times.
Luckily, my dependant has been supporting with bills. The loan in Kenya became so difficult to pay but all this time, I was communicating with the Sacco and telling them about my predicament.
I would commit to pay as soon as I found work. I was paying in small deposits until June 2024 when I couldn’t afford Sh. 20,000 monthly repayments. The Sacco decided to recover the loan from the guarantors. I now I feel like my life is over .
If you’re in Kenya and you are considering moving from Kenya to UK on this type of skilled worker visa without fully knowing if the sponsor company has hours or not, please do your due diligence.
People are paying millions of money to come to UK only to be depressed. I honestly don’t know if I’m going to survive this.