Foreign care workers ‘exploited on grand scale’ in UK: Report
Most of these workers are from India alongside Nigeria and Zimbabwe
Updated: Nov 28th, 2023
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| Care Worker (img: Envato Elements) |
Overseas workers invited to the UK to plug gaps in health and social care sectors are being “exploited on a grand scale” with some being paid as little as £5 an hour (₹526.2 per hour), according to a media report.
Around 78,000 people got visas to come to the UK and work in social care in the year to June 2023. Most of these recruits have come from India, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe and are charged thousands of pounds in unexpected fees, as per several reports.
Ever since the Home Office (UK’s home department) added care workers to the shortage occupation list, 14% of them in England are now from non-EU countries (excluding the UK), while 7% are from the EU.
Exploitation of the workers
An employer demanded £4,000 for “training costs” when a migrant care worker tried to leave for a job in the National Health service (NHS), and another was hit with hidden administration fees including £395 for a “cultural induction”, as per reports citing a trade union.
A worker from Botswana, who was helped by the trade union, said she worked in domiciliary care from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days a week but was paid less than half the legal minimum.
The company laid her off after losing the council care contract and now she fears being deported.
As per the rules, if a worker is laid off, or their employer shuts down, they must find a new sponsoring employer within 60 days, else face deportation - giving employers additional power over workers.
Annie, a care worker from Botswana, was paid for about only six hours while she worked 15-hour days, including waiting for appointments and driving between clients.
In addition, her employer withheld much of her wages for three consecutive months, only repaying her later, and also required her to share a room with a stranger, the report said.
Trade union reacts to this
“The care system would implode without migrant care staff. Demonising these workers will do nothing to solve the social care crisis,” the union’s general secretary said.
“Ministers must stop being complicit in allowing this abuse to happen. The government needs to reform immigration rules, not make them more draconian,” they added.
A government spokesperson was quoted by reports “do not tolerate abuse in the labour market and where we identify exploitative practices being undertaken by sponsors we take action. This can include the revocation of their licence”.
The incidents of exploitation come days after it was reported that immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, has drawn up options to curb immigration, including banning care workers from bringing dependents, or restricting them to one relative.
UK’s immigrant scenario
The UK’s net migration figure peaked at 7.45 lakh in the year to Dec 2022 - three times higher than the level before Brexit, according to revised estimates published by the office for national statistics (ONS) on Nov 23.
According to the data, the biggest contributor to non-EU immigration was migrants coming for work - particularly to fill shortages in the health and social care sectors - which rose to 33%, from 23% in the year ending June 2022.
India was among the top three non-EU nationalities for immigration in the year to June with 35,091 Indian health and care workers bringing 47,432 relatives during the period.
(Source: IANS)
- Edited for style
