Union calls out ‘shocking abuse’ of migrant careworkers in UK

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Migrants recruited to work in the UK care sector are being charged upfront fees of up to £15,000 and asked to repay inflated “relocation costs” if they seek to move jobs, according to Unison.

The union has written to social care minister Helen Whately warning her of a “significant rise” in the number of migrant care workers approaching Unison for help after what it termed “shocking abuse” by employers. It argues that problems are systemic and require government intervention.

The cases Unison has encountered suggest migrants often pay fees running into thousands of pounds to the recruiters in their home countries who find them work — a practice that would be illegal in Britain.

This means many arrive with debts, making them vulnerable to exploitation because they cannot complain about poor working conditions, underpayment or substandard accommodation for fear of being deported before they have earned enough.

It is not the first time this problem has been reported but Unison said it was now seeing new cases on a weekly basis. Some employers also ask workers to repay “relocation costs” if they seek to change job.

Although repayment clauses in contracts are not illegal, they are being “badly misused”, Unison says, with charges levied for air fares that migrants have paid themselves, training they have not received or Home Office fees employers would usually be expected to cover.

“The government must stop unscrupulous care employers from luring overseas workers under false pretences, only to then exploit and harass them,” said Christina McAnea, Unison’s general secretary.

Unison’s findings will inflame a running debate over the extent to which the UK should look overseas to meet labour shortages in low-paid sectors that struggle to recruit from the domestic workforce.

Until recently, only senior care workers were eligible to come to the UK on a skilled-worker visa. The government added lower-paid positions in early 2022 to a list of “shortage occupations” for which salary and skill requirements are relaxed, because the sector was facing an acute staffing crisis.

Since this change in the rules, overseas recruitment of care workers has rocketed, with some 58,000 coming to the UK in the year to March 2023 — many of them from India and Nigeria.

A group of rightwing MPs who call themselves the “New Conservatives” called last week for the government to close off this visa route as part of a 12-point plan to lower record levels of immigration.

Unison, however, contends that “the only real solution . . . Is to properly fund the social care sector”, where both migrant and UK-born staff often work for low pay and on insecure terms.

The problems care workers have reported are very similar to those encountered by migrants who came to work on UK farms last year through a short-term visa scheme for seasonal agricultural workers.

Campaigners for migrants’ rights have meanwhile called for reforms of low-skilled visa routes, saying the way they are structured makes it very difficult for workers to speak out if they are being mistreated.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “No staff should face any kind of abuse, especially when raising concerns with their employer.”

A spokesperson for the department added that all employers had to follow the code of practice to ensure staff are recruited 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 code could “face prosecution and the possibility of a custodial sentence”.