UK government fails to protect workers from trafficking and exploitation

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ATLEU has brought a legal challenge to the government’s Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme on the grounds that it breaches Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This is the first human rights claim to be brought against the scheme and argues that the UK government has failed to put in place practical and effective steps to protect workers from being subjected to modern slavery, including forced labour exploitation.

Our client was recruited to the UK by AG Recruitment who were authorised by the Home Office to issue visas to seasonal workers. He was charged unlawful recruitment fees of several thousand pounds to join the scheme and faced illegal deductions of wages and labour exploitation when he arrived in the UK.

We are seeking compensation for our client’s treatment but also a declaration that the scheme breached our client’s Article 4 rights. We hope that the declaration will force the government to review the scheme.

The farms where our client worked have already been identified as being particularly exploitative of migrant workers. Yet no steps have been taken to ensure that the scheme operators, and the farms that workers are allocated to, are complying with the law.

Call for evidence

To support this challenge, ATLEU is keen to hear from workers who have:

  • Been asked to pay large recruitment fees in order to take up employment in the UK

  • Been asked to take a loan from the recruitment agent to cover the costs of coming to the UK

  • Been given contracts before coming to the UK and then given a new contract with different terms in the UK

  • Not been provided with contracts and/or where the contract is only provided in a language that they cannot understand

  • Not been offered sufficient work to cover their costs in coming to the UK

  • Not been paid in full for the work carried out

  • Been provided with poor accommodation

  • Been subjected to abusive/discriminatory treatment on the farms

  • Been sanctioned after raising concerns or making complaints

  • Made requests to transfer to another farm because of concerns about poor treatment, facilities, lack of work, etc; being ignored

Please contact Jamila@atleu.org.uk or call 020 7700 7311 if you would like to submit evidence by Wednesday 28 February 2024.

Read more details of our clients case here.

Background to the Seasonal Worker Scheme

Employers cannot sponsor people for Seasonal Worker visas directly. Instead, a small number of ‘scheme operators’ are responsible for recruiting, sponsoring and safeguarding the welfare of workers. Farms must source their workers from a scheme operator.

A pilot seasonal worker scheme took place in 2018 with 2,500 workers. Following the pilot, concerns were raised with government that the scheme was enabling exploitation, in that workers were:

  • Being forced into debt bondage in having to take up costs in coming to the UK

  • Dependent on their visa sponsor (Scheme Operator) for information about the UK, for work, for accommodation and for their visa, as well as for managing any concerns about their employment and any other needs (eg health)

  • Subject to a lack of proactive labour market enforcement within the scheme.

The government noted the concerns raised and committed to a response. To date no response has been provided and the scheme simply expanded to 55,000 workers.