The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton has written to ministers at Defra and the Home Office raising concerns over labour exploitation risks in the Seasonal Worker (SW) visa route.

She was responding to the joint Home Office and Defra evaluation and review of the Seasonal Workers Pilot for 2019. The review, published on 24 December 2021, identified a number of issues for migrant workers on the agricultural scheme including:

• Out of 17 compliance visits to farms conducted by the Home Office, almost half identified workers that had not received their employment contract in their native language.
• 15% of workers on the scheme, responding to a survey conducted by Defra, said that their accommodation was neither safe, comfortable, hygienic or warm, and 10% that it had no bathroom, running water or kitchen.
• 22% of those who answered the survey alleged ill treatment by farm managers, including racism, discrimination or mistreatment on grounds of nationality.

In letters to the Secretary of State for Food and Rural Affairs and the Minister of Safe and Legal Migration at the Home Office, Dame Sara Thornton, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, commented:

“As the review acknowledges, these conditions are unacceptable. I am pleased that some action has already been taken, such as extra training for managers and updated guidance to tighten the compliance requirements.

“However, while no cases of modern slavery were identified during the 2019 season, there were strong indicators of labour exploitation, and these have continued in recent seasons. I would suggest that the report may be underestimating the risks for the following reasons.

“First, ongoing feedback from workers is essential for understanding trends and threats. But the 2019 survey is not fully representative of the worker experience. This is due to the limitations of self-selection bias, language barriers and a low response rate of 26%, as the review acknowledges. Second, the Home Office and Defra do not have data on how many workers used the provided helplines to raise issues that they were uncomfortable discussing with farm managers. Finally, modern slavery and severe cases of labour exploitation tend to be hidden from public view and are rarely discovered during audits and compliance visits.”

The Commissioner also highlighted the changing risk scenario, following the substantial expansion of the seasonal worker scheme. The visa route has expanded from 2,500 places in 2019 to 30,000 in 2022, with the option of recruiting a further 10,000 workers if required. The number of operators supplying labour into the scheme has doubled from two to four.

Dame Sara pointed out that risks to the scheme had multiplied over the past three years:

“In addition to a twelvefold increase in workers, agencies from as far afield as the Caribbean and Nepal have responded to the new immigration rules by advertising the SW route as a recruitment opportunity into the UK. Evidence suggests that workers migrating over longer distances are at greater risk of exploitation, particularly in the form of recruitment fees, bogus recruitment and debt bondage. Labour suppliers and agents in more distant countries will be even more difficult to scrutinise or hold to account.”

She also commented on reports of recruitment fees, which are banned under the scheme:

“In addition to a twelvefold increase in workers, agencies from as far afield as the Caribbean and Nepal have responded to the new immigration rules by advertising the SW route as a recruitment opportunity into the UK. Evidence suggests that workers migrating over longer distances are at greater risk of exploitation, particularly in the form of recruitment fees, bogus recruitment and debt bondage. Labour suppliers and agents in more distant countries will be even more difficult to scrutinise or hold to account.”

She added:

“Agriculture has consistently been identified as a high risk sector for labour exploitation by Directors of Labour Market Enforcement. My general message to business is that, if they haven’t found instances of labour exploitation risk in their supply chains, they are either not looking hard enough or do not have adequate systems in place. This principle should equally apply to government-backed visa schemes.”

In her letters to the ministers, Dame Sara made the following recommendations:

• Concerted efforts need to be taken to educate workers and ensure that they understand their rights during and after the recruitment process.
• Worker voice tools should be rolled out to understand worker experience, at scale and in real time, while the scheme is operating.
• There should be a grievance mechanism, run by a neutral third party and accessible to all workers on the scheme.
• For those workers that have paid recruitment fees, provision should be made for remediation.
• The scheme’s existing risks should be assessed and addressed before visa schemes are expanded or rolled out to other areas.

Read the letter in full here.

Notes: The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner wrote to George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for Food and Rural Affairs and Kevin Foster MP, Minister of Safe and Legal Migration at the Home Office on 24.01.22.