Myra Stephen came to Britain with a big suitcase and even bigger dreams. The 27-year-old has left Kerala in South India to work at a care home in Manchester, one of thousands of migrant workers who come after government recruitment to fill more than 100,000 social welfare jobs.
The job will pay £ 10 an hour – just above the minimum wage. But there was a price. In return for providing work, she will pay a recruitment agent Rs 1.3 crore – around £ 13,700.
Stephen, whose name has been changed to protect her, is one of a growing number of migrant workers tasked with working in the UK care sector.
Requiring workers to pay hiring fees for finding or attempting to find work is illegal in the UK and violates international labor standards.
The practice was previously uncovered in Dubai and the Persian Gulf – most recently with migrant workers employed in projects related to the World Cup in Qatar – and is considered a violation of human rights, making workers vulnerable to exploitation.
But an Observer investigation has uncovered a thriving industry of recruitment agencies that supply care workers and home care companies across the UK that pass on the cost of hiring applicants.
Workers from countries including India, the Philippines, Ghana and Zimbabwe – many of whom arrived through a new caring visa scheme launched in February – have reported being charged between £ 2,000 and £ 18,000 in illegal fees.
Most cannot speak in public because their visas are tied to their employers.
But testimonies of 10 workers, interviews with charities and labor experts and analysis of pay slips, contracts and online chat groups for workers reveal that the practice is widespread, with dozens of agencies estimated to charge fees.
Recruiters appear to be targeting lower-income workers, especially in Asia and Africa, luring candidates with promises of good jobs or a ‘dream life’ in the UK through social media and word of mouth.
The official fee for applying for a visa for individuals is £ 247, and the costs of hiring are borne by the employer.
But in an exchange with an undercover reporter last week, an Indian-based agency that supplies care workers to the UK said the “service fee” for jobseekers of £ 10 an hour would be 1, 7 million rupees, about £ 17,800.
The agency said £ 1,500 would be paid before the interview, £ 4,000 upon receipt of the letter of offer and £ 3,500 after the visa was issued, with the remainder to be collected upon arrival in the UK.
Another company said on its website that applicants would have to “pay a fee to the agency to find you a job.” The UK-registered agency cites £ 4,500 for an “accommodation package” including a certificate of sponsorship, costs normally borne by the employer and “visa application support” – something that only lawyers and registered immigration advisers can legally to charge.
A third agency, which we did not name to protect the identities of the victims, demanded a £ 4,000 fee from a worker to provide them with £ 10.10 an hour as a health assistant at a nursing home for the elderly in the south-east.
In a letter of offer sent to the worker by Observer, the UK-based company said the fee – equal to full pay for more than two months – should “cover the cost of processing the sponsorship certificate”.
Wages are likely to be illegal and meet the International Labor Organization’s definition of prohibited taxes, which include “any expenditure incurred in the hiring process to enable workers to secure employment or employment, regardless of the manner, time or place of imposition. or collection “.
Caregivers have been trapped in debt bondage – a form of modern slavery – as a result of being forced to pay fees. Suspected victims describe how agents withheld money from their salaries and withheld their passports or residence permits until they paid off the debt.
Campaign leader Joe Joseph of Kerala, India, highlighted the problem of modern-day slavery in the nursing home sector. Photo: Antonio Olmos / The Observer
Myra Stephen said she is expected to work “day and night” while working to pay off. Before coming to the UK, she borrowed from friends to cover her initial expenses, but still owes £ 3,700. She says the agent holds her biometric residence permit – proof of her immigration status – until the fee is paid.
Others allege that they were misled about working conditions, paid less than the minimum wage and were subjected to threats and abuse.
In one case, a woman was told she would work in Birmingham, but was sent to rural Wales. Her visa was tied to this employer. “There is no car, no bus. She lives in the house. They sold their properties in India to come here. How will they get back? “Said Joe Joseph, a Kerala activist who posted on social media about the recruitment fees.” People are scared. If they raise their voices, they will be fired. “
Contracts that bind workers to their jobs can make it even harder for some to leave their roles. Pay clauses are commonly used in the private care sector, as well as by some NHS trusts, and provide that workers will pay a fee if they leave before their contractual terms expire – usually two or three years.
John Nkub, who arrived in Britain from Zimbabwe earlier this year, said he had been forced to borrow money from relatives to cover the cost of a £ 2,000 “administrative fee” to find work, with £ 250 a month. deducted from his salary.
After rent, bills, food and other expenses – including the fee for renting a company car – he is left with “nothing”, even though he works overtime. John, whose name has been changed to protect him, cannot resign due to a pay-as-you-go clause that requires him to pay almost £ 4,000 if he leaves within two years.
“It’s frustrating and depressing. You are really tired and you are pushing yourself to the limit. It doesn’t make sense at all, “he said.
“Many people at home do not realize that recruitment fees are illegal because they are so common. Even if they did, many would still come. This is the most heartbreaking thing. Agents and employers see their despair. ”
The findings raise urgent concerns about modern-day slavery in Britain, amid a deteriorating crisis with welfare staff, with the vacancy rate in England reaching 10%, according to the charity Skills for Care.
In February, the government added caring workers to the list of job shortages, easing the requirement for them to come to the UK, provided they are sponsored by an employer.
Announcing the scheme, Interior Minister Priti Patel said it would “help ease” the pressure by attracting thousands of international workers. But four months later, evidence shows that the route has been widely used by fraudulent tenants.
New data reveal that recruitment fees are part of a broader picture of deteriorating exploitation in the sector. Kate Theroni, Chief Inspector of Social Welfare for Adults at the Health Care Quality Regulatory Commission in England, said there had been a “noticeable increase” in recommendations for modern slavery in 2022 and was working with other agencies to dealing with it. This year there are 14 recommendations so far – twice the total for 2021 and almost five times the total for 2020.
Unseen UK, the charity that runs the national aid line for modern slavery, said it had seen 78 potential victims of modern-day slavery and labor exploitation in the care sector in 2021, double the 2020 figure.
Other cases observed by the Observer reveal that workers are also trafficked in the care sector on illegal roads. In one case, an 18-year-old was brought from West Africa as the husband of a man with a student visa and forced to work as a home caregiver. The teenager and her family believed she would work in the beauty industry, but she was registered with a care agency in the United Kingdom using a false identity.
Common in the private care sector, pay clauses are also used by some NHS trusts and stipulate that workers will pay a fee if they leave before their contract expires. Photo: Phil Fisk / Getty Images / Image source
The teenager was forced to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week while the money went to someone else’s bank account, according to Debbie Arijo, chairman of the BME Anti-Slavery Network. “She was really exploited. They would call her on the phone to harass her: “How come you’re not at work? What are you doing? ”Ario said.
In another case, identified by the charity Kanlungan, which supports Filipino migrants, a husband and wife came with their son after being offered a job as physiotherapists.
Upon arrival, they realized that they were instead being cared for by being assigned to private households in the southeast. They spent months relocating, earning below the minimum wage with few days off, and employers allegedly told them, “If you don’t work, we’ll make you homeless tomorrow and report you to the Home Office.”
The Interior Ministry-sponsored Bandit and Abuse Department has become increasingly concerned about abuses in the care sector in recent months, with attacks leading to arrests of suspects in modern-day slavery crimes.
To address the problems, experts and activists are calling for greater oversight of the care sector and a major overhaul of the visa sponsorship system at the Interior Ministry. Some called for job advertisements on a government portal to make it easier for applicants to apply directly, excluding agents and other intermediaries.
There are also calls for care to become a GLAA-licensed sector, such as agriculture. This would mean that all recruitment agents, both in the UK and outside the UK, will need a license to provide workers, with conditions stipulating that “they should not charge a worker for any and any job-finding services’ …
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