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Migrants recruited to work in the UK’s care sector are charged an upfront fee of up to £15,000 and required to repay inflated “relocation costs” if they seek to change jobs, according to Unison.
The union wrote to Social Welfare Minister Helen Whatley warning of a “significant rise” in the number of migrant care workers approaching Unison for help after what it described as “appalling abuse” by employers. He argues that the problems are systemic and require government intervention.
Cases encountered by Unison indicate that migrants often pay fees running into the thousands of pounds to recruitment agents in their home countries who find them working – a practice that may be illegal in Britain.
This means that many come loaded with debt, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation because they cannot complain about poor working conditions, low wages or substandard accommodation, for fear of being deported before they earn enough.
This isn’t the first time this issue has been reported, but Unison said it is now seeing new cases on a weekly basis. Some employers also require workers to pay “transition costs” if they are seeking to change jobs.
Although payment terms in the contracts are not illegal, they are “badly abused,” Unison says, with charges for airline tickets immigrants paid themselves, training they didn’t receive, or Home Office fees that would normally be expected. Covered by employers.
“The government must stop unscrupulous welfare employers from luring foreign workers under false pretenses, then exploiting and harassing them,” said Christina McNea, Secretary-General of Unison.
Unison’s findings will fuel debate about how far the UK should look abroad to address labor shortages in low-wage sectors that are struggling to recruit from the local workforce.
Until recently, only senior care workers were eligible to come to the UK on a skilled worker visa. The government added low-paying jobs in early 2022 to a list of “sufficed occupations” in which salary and skills requirements are being relaxed, because the sector was facing an acute employment crisis.
Since this change in rules, the rate of overseas employment of care workers has skyrocketed, with around 58,000 arriving in the UK in the year ending March 2023 – many from India and Nigeria.
A group of right-wing MPs calling themselves “neoconservatives” last week called on the government to shut down this visa route as part of a 12-point plan to lower record levels of immigration.
However, Unison maintains that “the only real solution . . . is to properly fund the social care sector”, with both immigrant and UK-born employees working for low wages and insecure conditions.
The problems reported by care workers are very similar to those faced by migrants who came to work on UK farms last year through a short-term visa scheme for seasonal agricultural workers.
Meanwhile, campaigners for immigrant rights have called for reforms to low-skill visa pathways, saying the way they are organized makes it very difficult for workers to speak out if they are being mistreated.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “No employee should face any kind of abuse, especially when raising concerns with their employer.”
A spokesperson for the department added that all employers must follow the Code of Practice to ensure employees are hired ethically and treated with respect. Witnesses or victims of malpractice can contact the Care Quality Commission that regulates the sector, the person said, adding: Employers found to be in breach of the law “could face prosecution and a possible prison sentence.”