UK care companies accused of exploiting overseas employees caught in debt traps

British social care companies have been accused of exploiting foreign workers, leaving individuals residing on the breadline as they wrestle to repay money owed run up whereas attempting to safe jobs that fail to materialise.

Dozens of individuals working for 11 totally different care suppliers have advised the Guardian they paid 1000’s of kilos to brokers to safe jobs working in UK care houses or residential care, with most discovering restricted or no employment once they arrived.

Many are actually struggling to repay large money owed of their house international locations and having to work in irregular jobs for under the minimal wage.

Labour and the Conservatives are actually beneath strain to sort out the problem in the event that they win subsequent month’s election. The Tories not too long ago banned overseas care employees bringing their dependents to the UK with them, a ban Labour said last week it might maintain in place in an effort to convey internet immigration down.

However specialists say the ban has didn’t sort out the deeper challenge of exploitation of the employees themselves, a lot of whom are nonetheless within the UK and residing in poverty, afraid to depart their employers for concern of dropping their visa standing.

The Royal School of Nursing (RCN) has now written to the leaders of all three main nationwide events to demand a full authorities inquiry into remedy of migrant care employees when parliament returns.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the performing normal secretary of the RCN, mentioned: “The exploitation of migrant care employees is a nationwide scandal however little has been carried out to sort out it.

“A chronically understaffed social care sector has supercharged its recruitment of employees from abroad and an absence of regulation and enforcement has allowed some employers to revenue from the mistreatment of migrants.”

She added: “An pressing authorities investigation into exploitation throughout the social care sector have to be a precedence for whoever wins the final election. Lives are being ruined day by day and this work has to start out as quickly as potential.”

David Neal, who raised the alarm about the care visa system when he was the government’s borders inspector, mentioned: “As quickly as we checked out social care visas, we realised there was exploitation happening.”

He added: “All through my inspection, I used to be considering of the Windrush scandal and there are echoes of it right here: the state inviting employees to come back to this nation to assist us within the labour market after which abandoning them.”

Legal professionals say UK care suppliers who promise common full-time work after which supply exploitative or underpaid jobs on arrival might have damaged the legislation. The sponsorship system means a person’s visa standing is tied to a specific employer, that means many really feel trapped.

Johanna White, a solicitor on the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit, a charity, mentioned: “I can see what appear like indicators of trafficking and fashionable slavery.

“In lots of instances, there seems to have been misleading recruitment, with the people being given false info and guarantees to induce them to pay giant charges upfront to the brokers for the chance to reside and work within the UK, being left susceptible to compelled labour, monetary exploitation or each.”

The care business has turned to foreign workers in their hundreds of thousands in recent years to unravel labour shortages attributable to Brexit and the Covid pandemic. The federal government granted 350,000 well being and care visas in 2023 to employees and their dependants, accounting for 75% of all expert employee visas issued.

However because the numbers have risen, abuse of the system seems to have carried out so too.

The Guardian spoke to greater than 30 employees, all of whom got here from India – although they mentioned others from sub-Saharan Africa had suffered related experiences.

All shared roughly the identical story, of paying immigration brokers – and in some instances, the care supplier itself – several thousand pounds in fees to secure a visa to work both in a care house or as a carer in individuals’s houses.

Most mentioned the brokers promised them the cash would cowl the visa, flights and a month’s lodging, and that they might be assured full-time work incomes above £20,000 a yr. The wage would shortly clear any debt incurred to pay the preliminary charges, many say they had been advised.

Shortly earlier than arriving within the UK, nevertheless, employees declare they had been advised they must pay for their very own flights and discover lodging for themselves. After which once they arrived, they didn’t get the roles they had been promised. Typically there was no work in any respect or the hours and pay had been far lower than promised.

Some employees mentioned their employers inspired them to search out informal work elsewhere, as allowed beneath the phrases of their visa.

Staff at one firm mentioned they had been pressed to work for that firm as drivers or cleaners as an alternative. A number of mentioned they’ve been utilizing meals banks, whereas some mentioned they had been sharing rooms, and even beds, with different immigrants to make ends meet.

In a number of instances, employees complaining in regards to the circumstances say they had been advised their sponsorship can be eliminated if they didn’t stay silent and they might be deported again to India. Some mentioned their households had additionally been threatened by Indian-based immigration brokers ought to they attempt to converse out.

Shahid Chera Pparambil, one of many employees, mentioned: “If I am going again to India, I don’t have anyplace to reside. I don’t have any possibility aside from committing suicide.”

He added that the debt he had incurred in India was now inflicting issues for the household he had left behind: “Individuals are coming and demanding cash from us, from my spouse and household. I can’t convey them right here, there isn’t any residing. I’m completely locked.”

Neal’s report, which was printed after he had been sacked from his position, warned that the Home Office didn’t have ample oversight of the visas being provided.

He discovered tons of of certificates of sponsorship – paperwork wanted to safe a talented employee visa – being granted to one company that was pretending to be a care home and 1000’s to an organization with out its information. For each 1,600 employers licensed to sponsor overseas employees, there was solely a single inspector.

A Dwelling Workplace spokesperson mentioned: “We stop abroad care employees from getting into the UK with out real roles or honest pay to safeguard in opposition to destitution.

“Unlawful labour market actions face zero tolerance; we implement strict measures in opposition to exploitative care suppliers. The variety of visas granted has been lowered as we sort out noncompliance and abuse head-on.”

Six of the 11 employers recognized by the Guardian have had their licences to herald extra overseas care employees suspended or cancelled. Nonetheless, the opposite 5 retain the flexibility to herald employees from overseas.

Virtually the entire care employees who spoke to the Guardian had been nonetheless within the UK. Whereas some have discovered employment from new sponsors, many are having to work irregular shifts as cleaners or drivers, usually being paid under the minimal wage, to make a residing.

Neal mentioned your entire system of permitting firms to challenge certificates of sponsorship – a system normally used for high-end skilled jobs – was inappropriate for the care business, the place exploitation is frequent.

“Anybody on this space knew this was the fallacious option to get extra individuals into the social care sector,” he mentioned.