Joint Report Launch: UK Agriculture and Care Visas
Latest update: 14/05/2024
In an effort to address the vulnerability created by the restrictive, short-term visas, we join Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), Kanlungan and academics from five UK leading universities in preparing and launch the report UK Agriculture and Care Visas: Worker Exploitation And Obstacles to Redress. Following the release, a community event was organised on 12th May to honour the contributions by community members.
To start with, we want to thank our interviewees for their time and trust in us. Raising your voice is extremely important. We want a system change that aligns with the views and experiences of those being affected.
Migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries long contribute to the economy in the UK across industries, among which are agriculture and care sectors. The Philippines is the second largest immigrant individual nationality of nurses and the fourth of care workers (Migration Observatory, 2023). Indonesia was one of the focused countries UK recruited its seasonal workers from.
Sadly, the systems of both visa schemes make these overseas workers susceptible to labour exploitation that, in some cases, amounts to forced labour by the definition of the International Labour Organization’s 11 forced labour indicators.
A main problem facing seasonal workers is the long ‘supply chain’ of recruitment and employment which involves private operators and recruiters in both the UK and the sending countries. The complex structure leads to a lack of effective monitoring, transparency and accountability.
Prevalent concerns among migrant care workers are low pay (less than the National Minimum Wage), excessive overtime, deceptive job descriptions, lack of privacy and physical abuses among other violations.
The Report highlights both seasonal and care workers find it challenging to change employers. That worker’s status in the country is tied to employers and that they’re pressured to pay transfer fees to secure new jobs leave them susceptible to being made irregular.
We call for strengthening the protections for workers to ameliorate the risks of exploitation. Actions must be taken to introduce a minimum pay rate for ALL care workers, to enforce mechanisms that identify and prevent recruitment fees and related costs, and to amend the conditions attached to visas to make it viable for workers to change employers. We further recommend the inclusion of all work visas legal pathways to visa renewal and settlement and the entitlements to public funds.
