16th July 2024: Financial Times – UK food sector should cover migrant workers’ upfront costs, advisers say
The UK food sector should cover the upfront costs faced by migrant farm workers if it wants to keep access to the overseas labour it relies on, the government’s advisers on migration have said.
UK immigration: Migration Advisory Committee urges government to do more to stamp out abuses in seasonal worker scheme
Sourced from: Financial Times Delphine Strauss and Oliver Telling – 16th July 2024
Farm workers coming to the UK are at risk of debt bondage because they often borrow money to cover flights and visas without knowing what they will earn, a report by the independent Migration Advisory Committee found.
To maintain current levels of food production, there was no immediate alternative given a lack of willing UK recruits to the seasonal worker scheme (SWS), the report published on Tuesday said, urging ministers to give industry certainty over the scheme’s future.
However, the report also said the industry and government had not done enough to stamp out abuses of workers’ rights in a scheme where they faced “an inherent imbalance of power” against employers.
The SWS allows UK growers to hire around 45,000 people a year on six-month visas.
The previous Conservative government said in May that the programme would run at least until 2029 but noted the aim would be to taper its size over time, while encouraging farmers towards automation.
Ministers should confirm visa numbers each year on a rolling basis, so the industry would in effect “have five years’ notice if the scheme were to be closed”, the MAC said.
Labour pledged before the general election on July 4 to reform the immigration system with a view to reducing overseas hiring, by making employers’ access to visas conditional on greater efforts to train UK workers.
However, it has not yet said what this will mean in practice or proposed any changes to the SWS.
But workers also need more certainty over how much they will earn, the committee added, calling for a guarantee of at least two months pay, to ensure they could recoup the costs of coming to the UK.
It urged the industry to accelerate action to move to an “employer pays principle”, so that recruitment and relocation expenses are borne by employers rather than workers.
An industry task force, including supermarkets, growers and recruiters, has said it will model ways an EPP model could work. But it has made slow progress because there is no consensus on how to share costs along the supply chain, given the tight margins imposed by retailers on UK growers.
The MAC said the task force needed to work faster and urged it to set a timeframe to present proposals. Ministers should then confirm the scheme’s continuation only if this timeframe was met, it said.
Recommended UK employment: Britain’s seasonal worker scheme leaves many migrants in debt, research finds
The committee noted that the government and employers needed to do more to inform workers of their legal rights and to enforce them through proactive inspections. It also called for a clearer process to refund income tax and help workers opt out of pension auto-enrolment.
Workers’ rights campaigners welcomed the committee’s recommendations. “All the risks of the seasonal worker scheme are on the workers, all the costs . . . It’s really important the government takes heed of this,” said Andy Hall, a migrant rights campaigner who has worked with the industry’s Stronger Together task force.
A government spokesperson said it would “carefully consider” the MAC’s findings and respond in “due course”.
Sophie De Salis, a sustainability policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium, said the task force’s study would be “a vital step” to understand how the EPP could be applied in practice.
It urged the government to adopt the MAC’s recommendations but also to scrap visa fees, arguing that these “heighten the financial risk to workers from the outset”.
The industry’s SWS task force said it acknowledged the committee’s call for its study to be conducted in a timely manner and was working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the jointly-funded project.
Additional Reading:
Independent 2nd June 2024: Vulnerable workers coming to UK in post-Brexit deal at risk of bullying and sexual harassment, report finds
Independent 29th May 2024: UK ministers pressed ahead with seasonal worker visa scheme for migrants despite UN experts’ warning of forced labour and human trafficking risks
Bureau of Investigative Journalism 29th May 2024: Government expanded visa scheme weeks after UN raised alarm over people trafficking
BHRRC 23rd May 2024: UK – Leading supermarkets asked to meet costs of implementing the Employer Pays Principle across supply chains by civil society group (see 9th May 2024 below); incl. company responses
Bloomberg 22nd May 2024: Fruit Picker Who Said Her Hands Bled From Work Sues UK Employer
Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce Update 17th May 2024: SWS Taskforce update on Employer Pays Principle study
GROCER 10th May 2024: SOURCING Workers’ groups call on supermarkets to pay seasonal labour fees – The groups said there are risks farmers will be unable to comply to new rules
Guardian 9th May 2024: UK Government says employers may be required to pay travel and visa costs for people getting seasonal worker visas
9th May 2024: Landworker’s Alliance and Allies call for UK supermarkets to pay recruitment related fees and costs for migrant workers
April 30th 2024: BBC World –England again employs seasonal fruit pickers from Indonesia (translation)
The Grocer 30th Apr 2024: Growers brace for up to £90m in additional seasonal worker costs in UK in move towards internationally compliant zero cost responsible recruitment model for vulnerable migrant workers
3rd April 2024: Financial Times (London) UK employment – Britain’s seasonal worker scheme leaves many migrants in debt, research finds
3rd April 2024: Independent – Migrant fruit pickers saddled with debts of up to £5,500 to come to UK through government scheme
26th January 2024: UK Seasonal Worker Scheme Modern Slavery Issues: Indonesian seasonal fruit pickers landed in debt bondage challenges Home Office
26th Jan 2024: ATLEU – UK government fails to protect workers from trafficking and exploitation
26th Jan 2024: ATLEU – Challenge to government’s Seasonal Worker Scheme
25th Jan 2024 Home Office: UK government survey on experiences of seasonal workers scheme confirms the exceptionally high levels of issues (confusion, fees etc) faced by Indonesian and Nepali workers in 2021/2022
24th Jan 2024: ATLEU – Seasonal worker recognised as a potential victim of trafficking
12th January 2024: UK government ‘breaching international law’ with seasonal worker scheme, says UN envoy
FLEX 26th Oct 2023 – Seasonal Workers’ Rights; Who’s Responsible?
21st July 2023: Vulnerable UK migrant workers at risk as audits of farm recruiters stall
17th March 2023 BHRRC Blog Series: UK Seasonal Worker Scheme Endangers Vulnerable Foreign Workers. (My Op Ed)
23rd February 2023: Farm workers on UK seasonal visas to be guaranteed 32 hours a week
Other stories on challenges of UK seasonal worker scheme
1. Working in the UK: Hundreds of Indonesian Citizens Escape, More Than 1,200 Workers from Indonesia Threatened to Cancel (BBC, 16th Feb 2023)
2. AG Recruitment, UK recruiter of debt-hit Indonesian and Nepali migrant workers, loses seasonal workers scheme license following forced labour related allegations, worker abscondments and asylum claims (Guardian, 10th Feb 2023)
3. Indonesian former fruit pickers become illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in the UK – ‘This is the easiest shortcut’ (BBC, 26th Jan 2023)
4. Home Office accepts recommendations in Chief Inspector’s report on immigration system as it relates to the agricultural sector (Freeths, 16th Jan 2023)
5. Immigration: Investors warn food companies about risk of forced labour on UK farms (Financial Times 19th Dec 2022)
6. Investor statement on the UK Seasonal Worker Scheme (Public Investor Statement 19th Dec 2022)
7. Hundreds of Indonesian fruit pickers in UK seek diplomatic help (Guardian, 2nd Dec 2022)
8. Seasonal worker visa puts migrants at risk of exploitation, say supermarkets (Guardian, 2nd Dec 2022)
9. Seasonal fruit pickers from Nepal left thousands in debt after being sent home early from UK farms (Guardian, 13th Nov 2022)
10. Indonesia to investigate claims fruit pickers in UK seasonal agricultural workers scheme charged thousands to work in Kent (Guardian, 29th Aug 2022)
