Lured by deceptive recruitment practices and false promises, foreign workers are coming to the U.K. to help fill in labor gaps in the care sector. But as shared in The Guardian, British recruitment agencies stand accused of exploiting the foreign workers they recruit and stranding them without the promised jobs. These workers are struggling to pay off debts incurred to get the job and are trapped in modern slavery.

National scandal

Labor shortages in the care sector caused by Brexit and the Covid pandemic have led to a surge in the number of visas being granted to migrant workers in the U.K. Just last year the British government granted 350,000 visas to care workers and their dependents. The care industry relies on these foreign workers in their hundreds of thousands, currently accounting for 75% of all skilled worker visas issued by the U.K. But this surge in migrant care workers seems to have brought with it an uptick in the level of abuse of the system, mostly due to unscrupulous practices and lies by the British recruitment agencies. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is demanding a full government inquiry into the treatment of migrant care workers when parliament returns.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the acting general secretary of the RCN, said:

“The exploitation of migrant care workers is a national scandal…a lack of regulation and enforcement has allowed some employers to profit from the mistreatment of migrants.”

A solicitor at the charity Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit said she sees what looks like indicators of trafficking and modern slavery. She cited the deceptive recruitment tactics and false promises being made to induce migrants to pay large upfront fees.

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