“The UK relies on workers on restrictive, short-term visas, which create huge dependencies on their employers for safety and wellbeing,” said Kate Roberts, head of policy at Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), a British charity. “Workers are left without avenues to complain or leave jobs with poor working conditions or abusive practices, locking them into exploitation. When the immigration rules make staying in that job a workers’ best option, the worker will stay, even if they are being exploited. Abusive employers rely on this.”
And the situation could get worse still. Last month, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that migrant workers will be required to live in the UK for 10 years and pass a series of new contribution-based tests to qualify for ‘indefinite leave to remain’.
These changes risk tying foreign workers to exploitative employers for longer, said Adis Sehic, policy manager at the Work Rights Centre, a charity that is supporting Kavin alongside the Causeway. “We are deeply concerned by the government’s plans to increase the time a visa worker must wait to apply for settlement from five to 10 years. This will put sponsored workers at risk for a decade, and is likely to lead to more cases of modern slavery or human trafficking.”
Kavin eventually managed to get help when his boss went away for a day and has now been formally identified as a victim of modern slavery under the National Referral Mechanism. But he still cannot legally work and reside in the UK as he has not received an eligible job offer, with finding one made harder by the fact that he does not have a permanent address.
He also can’t return to Sri Lanka. “The manager is an affluent man who has threatened my family,” he said. “They said I have shamed him. I am afraid if I go back, I will be killed.” Life in limbo has prolonged his trauma, as he spends his days alone, reliving the violence and exploitation he endured in the shop.
“It is an unnecessary additional cruelty that Kavin has spent 14 months isolated from society, unable to work,” said Sehic. “This system of sponsored visas is not fit for purpose in a society that stands against modern slavery. It needs urgent reform to give workers the freedom to leave an exploitative employer, and take their labour to another who will value and respect them.”
Routes to exploitation
Kavin’s story is just one example of how “visas can be facilitators of exploitation”, said Ella Parry-Davies, a researcher at King’s College London who works with migrant domestic workers to use performance, crafts and storytelling to advocate for change.
“Focusing solely on the employers absolves the government of responsibility when what we need is systemic change to the immigration system.”
Another British visa accused of fuelling exploitation and modern slavery is the overseas domestic worker visa, which allows people to work in UK households in roles such as cleaners, nannies, chauffeurs or cooks, for up to six months. While these visas have not been tied to employers since 2016, they cannot be renewed and “workers don’t have time to find a new employer in the short timeframe available,” Parry-Davies explained.
London-based charity Kalayaan says more than 80% of the people it supports arrived in the UK on an overseas domestic workers visa, before facing exploitation and harm.
This was the case for Regina*, who came to the UK to work as a live-in maid and nanny on the domestic workers visa.
Regina’s employment contract promised fair wages. Instead, she was made to work 17-hour days for no pay, sleep in the laundry room and live off leftover food while her employers called her “stupid” and “dirty”. The family’s six-year-old son hit her in the face and verbally abused her. When Regina flagged his behaviour, his mother threatened her.
Regina’s case shows that migrant workers are being failed by a lack of safeguarding. The UK government reviewed her contract as part of her visa application and approved a licence from her employer to sponsor a foreign worker, but she still ended up exploited and forced to work in appalling conditions. It was only when she was fired and became homeless that she was referred to the NRM and identified as a victim of modern slavery.
“In principle, migrant domestic workers have the right to be informed about their visa terms and the right to the minimum wage and other workers’ rights, but in practice these rights are rarely enjoyed, and women often suffer psychological, physical and sometimes sexual abuse,” said Hannah Billington, CEO of Kalayaan, which supported Regina.
“The short-term of the visa directly restricts these rights. Many women will not take the risk of escaping. Migrant domestic workers live in fear of their employers but their only realistic option for escape is to wait until their abuse escalates to the point where they can enter the NRM as a survivor of human trafficking and modern slavery.”
Other visas – such as the seasonal worker visa and the Health and Care Worker visa, the latter of which closed to new applicants in July, although existing holders can stay in the UK until 2028 – expose workers to the same fears over reporting abuse and exploitation. Seasonal workers supported by FLEX said their work conditions were akin to slavery, but that they were afraid they would lose their right to remain in the UK if they sought help.
A joint investigation published by The Guardian and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism last year found multiple incidents of migrant health and care workers arriving in the UK who were sexually harassed and abused by their employers but unable to report the harms due to fears they would be deported. This included a woman who was repeatedly raped by her manager but felt unable to report him to the police for fear of losing her pay and her visa.
The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment.
*Names have been changed
