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Economic Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
UK migrant carers 'owed huge sums' in visa scheme 'scandal'
Live Events When Zimbabwean sales rep Zola landed a job in Britain as a care worker she was excited about forging a new career, but the mother-of-three is now homeless, jobless and trapped in rights experts say Zola is among tens of thousands of victims in an emerging national scandal that they say is a "shocking betrayal" by the 2022, Britain launched an initiative to encourage overseas workers to plug massive staffing shortages in its struggling care sector following the COVID pandemic and reports of exploitation have soared, with rogue operators charging illegal recruitment fees and promising jobs to more people than they could employ.(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)In a crackdown on labour abuses, the government has banned hundreds of companies from hiring migrant carers like Zola, who had already been recruited by these firms, are now in limbo and at risk of deportation unless they find a new sponsor."This should be recognised as a national crisis," said Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the charity Work Rights Centre "It's a shocking betrayal of migrant workers who came here in good faith to work when Britain called for help," she told the Thomson Reuters Work Rights Centre has been inundated with calls from desperate migrant workers this year, many facing said they were owed "huge sums". The charity is calling for harsher penalties for employers who break the rules to help fund a compensation Zola's story is typical, the Thomson Reuters Foundation calculated migrant workers like her would be owed hundreds of millions of pounds in lost no access to financial support or compensation, most care workers in Zola's situation are homeless. A few are sleeping rough, while others rely on friends."This has changed our lives," said Zola, 45, who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of repercussions."The government should be held accountable. I came here through the proper channels ... and now I'm treated like someone who came through the back door."Zola, who arrived in Britain in July 2023, said she had paid 5,000 pounds ($6,752) for a company in the northern city of Leeds to sponsor her, unaware such charges are illegal. Other care workers report paying 10,000 pounds or contract promised an annual salary of 20,480 pounds, but she was barely given any shifts, forcing her to borrow money to believes her former boss had hired about 100 carers. If staff complained they were threatened with deportation, she March, the government revealed more than 470 companies had lost their sponsor licences since 2022, affecting about 40,000 migrant government set up a job finding scheme for "displaced" workers in May 2024 and is encouraging care companies to hire research by the Work Rights Centre suggests just 3.4% of those signposted to the initiative were reported to have secured a said the government response was "deeply inadequate"."I think they're trying to bury the problem. At the end of the day, all these thousands of people are victims of fraud," she said."If we were talking about thousands of people who had booked a cruise that never materialised everyone would be screaming for a compensation scheme."A spokesperson for the government said the job matching scheme was supporting thousands of care workers, but did not respond to questions about has not had any luck finding a job through the initiative or said companies providing home care often wanted driving licences, which many carers do not obstacles facing carers include difficulties in supplying references and the cost of relocating to a new said the government had opened the gates to exploitation by setting up a system that tied workers to their sponsors through their had also allowed care companies - including small inexperienced start-ups - to recruit large numbers of carers without checking they could provide sufficient workers who lose their jobs have 60 days to find a new sponsor before their visa unions and rights campaigners are calling for a new system to allow workers to switch employers within the care sector without putting their visa at risk, and an extension to the 60-day grace month, the government said it would end care worker recruitment from abroad. Critics say the move is a knee-jerk reaction to the rise of anti-immigrant party Reform UK Jane Townson, CEO of the Homecare Association which represents domiciliary care providers, said the decision was shortsighted as there were still more than 130,000 said a lack of funding was a major home care services are purchased by local councils or the health service, but Townson said many public bodies did not pay care providers enough to even cover their labour costs at the minimum were forced to compete for contracts which were awarded to the lowest bidder, squeezing out good she said councils were driving down prices due to inadequate government funding."What we've got is state-sponsored labour exploitation," she added. "This is a public scandal."The government spokesperson said it had boosted social care funding this year and would introduce a fair pay agreement for care staff under broader Townson said the pay agreement was a long way off and would not work without a big injection of cash.
Time of India
13-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK migrant carers 'owed huge sums' in visa scheme 'scandal'
Live Events When Zimbabwean sales rep Zola landed a job in Britain as a care worker she was excited about forging a new career, but the mother-of-three is now homeless, jobless and trapped in rights experts say Zola is among tens of thousands of victims in an emerging national scandal that they say is a "shocking betrayal" by the 2022, Britain launched an initiative to encourage overseas workers to plug massive staffing shortages in its struggling care sector following the COVID pandemic and reports of exploitation have soared, with rogue operators charging illegal recruitment fees and promising jobs to more people than they could employ.(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)In a crackdown on labour abuses, the government has banned hundreds of companies from hiring migrant carers like Zola, who had already been recruited by these firms, are now in limbo and at risk of deportation unless they find a new sponsor."This should be recognised as a national crisis," said Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the charity Work Rights Centre "It's a shocking betrayal of migrant workers who came here in good faith to work when Britain called for help," she told the Thomson Reuters Work Rights Centre has been inundated with calls from desperate migrant workers this year, many facing said they were owed "huge sums". The charity is calling for harsher penalties for employers who break the rules to help fund a compensation Zola's story is typical, the Thomson Reuters Foundation calculated migrant workers like her would be owed hundreds of millions of pounds in lost no access to financial support or compensation, most care workers in Zola's situation are homeless. A few are sleeping rough, while others rely on friends."This has changed our lives," said Zola, 45, who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of repercussions."The government should be held accountable. I came here through the proper channels ... and now I'm treated like someone who came through the back door."Zola, who arrived in Britain in July 2023, said she had paid 5,000 pounds ($6,752) for a company in the northern city of Leeds to sponsor her, unaware such charges are illegal. Other care workers report paying 10,000 pounds or contract promised an annual salary of 20,480 pounds, but she was barely given any shifts, forcing her to borrow money to believes her former boss had hired about 100 carers. If staff complained they were threatened with deportation, she March, the government revealed more than 470 companies had lost their sponsor licences since 2022, affecting about 40,000 migrant government set up a job finding scheme for "displaced" workers in May 2024 and is encouraging care companies to hire research by the Work Rights Centre suggests just 3.4% of those signposted to the initiative were reported to have secured a said the government response was "deeply inadequate"."I think they're trying to bury the problem. At the end of the day, all these thousands of people are victims of fraud," she said."If we were talking about thousands of people who had booked a cruise that never materialised everyone would be screaming for a compensation scheme."A spokesperson for the government said the job matching scheme was supporting thousands of care workers, but did not respond to questions about has not had any luck finding a job through the initiative or said companies providing home care often wanted driving licences, which many carers do not obstacles facing carers include difficulties in supplying references and the cost of relocating to a new said the government had opened the gates to exploitation by setting up a system that tied workers to their sponsors through their had also allowed care companies - including small inexperienced start-ups - to recruit large numbers of carers without checking they could provide sufficient workers who lose their jobs have 60 days to find a new sponsor before their visa unions and rights campaigners are calling for a new system to allow workers to switch employers within the care sector without putting their visa at risk, and an extension to the 60-day grace month, the government said it would end care worker recruitment from abroad. Critics say the move is a knee-jerk reaction to the rise of anti-immigrant party Reform UK Jane Townson, CEO of the Homecare Association which represents domiciliary care providers, said the decision was shortsighted as there were still more than 130,000 said a lack of funding was a major home care services are purchased by local councils or the health service, but Townson said many public bodies did not pay care providers enough to even cover their labour costs at the minimum were forced to compete for contracts which were awarded to the lowest bidder, squeezing out good she said councils were driving down prices due to inadequate government funding."What we've got is state-sponsored labour exploitation," she added. "This is a public scandal."The government spokesperson said it had boosted social care funding this year and would introduce a fair pay agreement for care staff under broader Townson said the pay agreement was a long way off and would not work without a big injection of cash.
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Business Standard
10-06-2025
- Health
- Business Standard
UK care worker visa: Just 3.4% of exploited migrants helped by govt scheme
A UK government programme meant to help thousands of migrant care workers find new jobs after falling victim to employer exploitation has helped just 3.4% of them, official figures show. Between May 2024 and April 2025, more than 28,000 care workers whose visas were tied to their employer were referred to government-run job support 'hubs', according to data released by the Home Office under a Freedom of Information request submitted by the charity Work Rights Centre. These referrals followed investigations by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), which found that over 470 employers had been exploiting migrant staff and had their sponsor licences revoked. But only 941 of the workers referred through these hubs reported finding alternative jobs. 'This casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of the government's plan to fill social care vacancies using displaced migrant workers,' said Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre. 'Instead of jobs, they got scams' 'After Covid, England desperately needed more care workers, and thousands of people from around the world answered that call in good faith,' said Vicol. 'But instead of jobs they got scams, and instead of justice they got a referral to a programme that simply doesn't work as intended.' She called on the government to overhaul the Health and Care Worker visa scheme so that workers are not dependent on employer sponsorship to remain in the country. The Home Office has earlier said that 10,000 of the roughly 40,000 workers affected by the licence revocations had found other jobs, but it is unclear how many of these received help from official job hubs. Why the visa route grew—and why it's now being shut The Health and Care Worker visa route was introduced by Boris Johnson's government in 2020. At the time, social care in the UK was grappling with a growing shortage of workers due to Covid-19, Brexit, and an ageing population. The scheme allowed UK-based care businesses to fast-track the hiring of overseas workers, provided they were licensed sponsors. However, minimal checks were done on these employers. As a result, thousands of workers arrived from countries like India, the Philippines and Nigeria. But many later discovered that the promised jobs didn't exist or came with exploitative conditions. Because their visas were tied to their employers, they could not easily leave those jobs. Many were afraid to report abuse due to the risk of deportation. Once the employers' licences were revoked, the workers lost their right to work and had to seek a new sponsor. Keir Starmer bans new recruitment from overseas Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government announced last month that care homes and agencies in Britain would no longer be allowed to recruit new workers from abroad. According to the draft Immigration White Paper, those already in the UK on Health and Care Worker visas will be allowed to extend or switch into other routes until 2028 under a transition period. This policy will be subject to review. The decision comes amid mounting pressure from Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, which has campaigned on stricter migration controls. Nearly 700,000 Health and Care Worker visas have been issued over the past five years, government data show. In 2023 alone, the UK granted about 1,40,000 health and care visas. Of these, nearly 39,000 were issued to Indian nationals. 'Care workers from overseas have made a huge contribution to social care in the UK, but too many have been subject to shameful levels of abuse and exploitation,' the government said in a press release dated May 12, 2025. 'Workers seeking to support the UK's care sector arrived to find themselves saddled with debt, treated unfairly, or in extreme cases discover the jobs they were promised did not exist.' Kerala scam victims still trapped in debt Many of the worst-hit victims of visa fraud have been Indian workers, particularly from Kerala. A BBC investigation in March found that a surge in fake care jobs followed the UK's decision to add social care roles to its shortage occupation list during the pandemic, making it easier to sponsor foreign workers. Kerala police say they now receive daily complaints about fake job offers to the UK, Europe, Canada and New Zealand. 'This is not just about one or two isolated cases. There's a pattern here,' a senior officer told the BBC. 'Fraudsters are swindling lakhs of rupees from unsuspecting people by falsely promising them jobs.' According to Ketan Mukhija, senior partner at Burgeon Law, scammers deliberately target Keralites. 'Fraudsters target individuals from Kerala primarily due to their strong aspirations for better employment opportunities abroad,' Mukhija told Business Standard. 'Many migrants are driven by economic necessity and the desire to support their families, making them more susceptible to scams that promise high-paying jobs.' He added that legal recourse is often out of reach. 'Lawyers are expensive, and these workers are already in deep debt.' Local NGO Thittala estimates that between 1,000 and 2,000 Keralites remain in the UK after falling prey to such scams. Many more are stuck in India after spending their life savings on agents. In Kothamangalam, a small town in Ernakulam district, BBC reporters met around 30 individuals who said they had collectively lost crores of rupees trying to obtain UK care visas.
Time of India
06-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK Visa: UK hubs for exploited migrant carers are of little help, ETHRWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Download ETHRWorld App Get Realtime updates Save your favourite articles Scan to download App A major UK initiative to match thousands of exploited migrant care workers with employers has helped less than 4% find jobs, according to a Freedom of Information request, casting doubt on the government's efforts curb the industry's reliance on new employees brought in from than 28,000 migrant care workers whose visas were tied to their employer had to be referred to government job-finding 'hubs' between May 2024 and April 2025, according data released by the Home Office in response to an FOI from charity the Work Rights Centre. That was after they lost the job they were supposed to fill when UK Visas and Immigration officers discovered more than 470 employers were exploiting staff and revoked their licenses to sponsor overseas just 941 of those so-called 'displaced' migrant staff signposted by UKVI for support, or 3.4%, reported finding alternative employment. The small proportion who've been helped calls into question the government's plan to bring down job vacancies in social care by utilizing the pool of displaced workers, after it banned recruitment of overseas social care staff last month in an effort to reduce immigration.'After Covid, England desperately needed more care workers, and thousands of people from around the world answered that call in good faith,' said Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre. 'But instead of jobs they got scams, and instead of justice they got a referral to a program that simply doesn't work as intended.'She urged the government to 'rethink their approach' to migrant care workers by fully reforming the Health and Care Worker Visa so it isn't dependent on employer Home Office has previously said 10,000 of the 40,000 who were displaced had found alternative work. A spokesman said the FOI figures 'do not provide a complete picture and workers were initially under no obligation to report their employment outcomes back to their regional partnership.''Over 900 workers have been directly matched into new employment thanks to the international recruitment fund and thousands more are being supported through our regional partnerships with CV writing, interview techniques and signposting,' the spokesman said. 'Since April employers wanting to recruit migrant care workers need to first consider recruiting from the pool of displaced workers - getting them back to work, into fulfilling careers and boosting productivity.'The Health and Care Worker Visa route was introduced by Boris Johnson's government in 2020, as the number of vacancies in the social care sector — which looks after the elderly, sick and disabled — soared due to Covid-19, Brexit and an aging population. Employers were given a fast-track route to recruit staff from abroad by applying for licenses from the Home Office to sponsor few checks were done on the businesses who became licensed to be sponsors. Bloomberg found evidence of businesses charging overseas workers tens of thousands of pounds for the opportunity to come to the UK, while some paid their workers too little, overworked them or gave them no hours at migrants couldn't quit their jobs, and in many cases were too afraid to report their employer, since their right to stay in the UK was tied to their continued employment with that business. But UKVI began investigating and revoked at least 471 employers' sponsorship licenses. That meant around 40,000 migrant staff employed by those businesses could no longer work, and were left looking for an alternative pool of workers was one reason that Prime Minister Keir Starmer felt able to announce last month plans to ban British care businesses from recruiting overseas workers. Under pressure from the growing popularity of Nigel Farage's anti-migrant Reform UK party, Starmer has been looking for ways to reduce net migration into the country — almost 700,000 people have entered the UK on Health and Care Worker Visas over the last five matching those people with jobs is proving to be harder than expected. Emails sent out to displaced workers urging them to visit their local recruitment hub have in many cases gone unanswered, according to one government source. Many are thought to have gone into so-called 'black market' work such as prostitution in order to make a living, according to another government other cases, employers have rejected workers applying through the hubs because their English language isn't satisfactory, or they fail other requirements.'We're hearing a lot of moans about the hubs,' said Jane Townsend, chief executive of the Homecare Association which represents UK home care providers. Some businesses looking for workers said it had taken months to speak to anyone at the hubs, she said. 'What we're hearing from lots of people is that they're not replying to emails. There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency — and of course the clock ticks for the displaced workers, they've got 60 days to find another job, otherwise they get deported.'
Bloomberg
06-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
UK Response to Abused Migrant Carers Failing Most, Data Show
A major UK initiative to match thousands of exploited migrant care workers with employers has helped less than 4% find jobs, according to a Freedom of Information request, casting doubt on the government's efforts curb the industry's reliance on new employees brought in from abroad. More than 28,000 migrant care workers whose visas were tied to their employer had to be referred to government job-finding 'hubs' between May 2024 and April 2025, according data released by the Home Office in response to an FOI from charity the Work Rights Centre. That was after they lost the job they were supposed to fill when UK Visas and Immigration officers discovered more than 470 employers were exploiting staff and revoked their licenses to sponsor overseas workers.
