Carers recruited from abroad subjected to ‘widespread exploitation’ in the UK
Widespread exploitation of carers recruited from abroad is the “the number one priority” for the agency that investigates criminality affecting workers in England and Wales.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) told Sky News that the Health and Care Worker visa system is being abused by criminals, leading to “a constant stream of allegations” of fraud and modern slavery.
GLAA Senior Investigating Officer Martin Plimmer said there are more than 30 ongoing investigations into care agencies operating illegally and that his organisation still “doesn’t know the full extent” of the problem.
“It is our number one priority at the moment,” he said. “It’s the one area, the sector of business – because we deal with labour exploitation – where we have the most intelligence coming into us. Care is by far the number one issue for us as an agency.”
He explained: “Two years ago the care sector wasn’t on our radar at all”, adding that cases shot up since February 2022 when the government added care workers to the country’s Shortage Occupation List allowing people to be recruited from overseas. Carers now account for two in five of all skilled work visas.
Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority senior investigating officer Martin Plimmer
Mr Plimmer said there are companies established nationwide with the intention of exploiting workers desperate to come to the UK.
“The sole purpose of these criminals is to use these people as cash cows. They are running businesses at a much reduced cost because they’re not paying them what they’re supposed to. They’re also charging them excessive fees.”
Sky News has found several victims of this practice across the country. We’ve previously reported how human traffickers are using the Skilled Worker Visa route and how foreign care workers are left destitute, relying on foodbanks to survive.
Some of those illegal recruiters are based in Britain, operating fake and fraudulent care agencies.
‘Mary’, not her real name, told us she began looking for work in the UK in order to support her sick husband and teenage son. She was working in the Philippines but thought she could earn more here.
A woman, who we’re calling Mary, told us she began looking for work in the UK in order to support her sick husband and teenage son
She found an online advert for employment with a care agency in the North of England and had a successful interview on Zoom with a director of the company.
She said they then told her to transfer £4,000 – a fee which is illegal for recruiters to charge under UK law. In return she was provided with a certificate of sponsorship, outlining her offer of 39 hours a week as a carer and allowing her to be granted a Health and Care Worker visa.
‘I spent a lot of money and I cannot go back’
Mary said she used all her savings and borrowed money from her sister and a friend, but she believed her salary would provide a “better life” for her family back home.
It was only when she landed at the airport in England in July and was met by her recruiter that he told her there was no job.
Since then she’s been given accommodation in a shared house and a small food allowance but “not a single day” of the paid work she was promised.
As she described her situation she became tearful. “We need money to pay my debt in the Philippines,” she said. “And also I need to support my family because they are relying on me.”
She said she feels trapped. Under the terms of her visa, she is only allowed to work full-time for her sponsor – and any part-time work, limited to 20 hours extra per week, has to also be in the care sector.
“My family doesn’t know my situation here and I don’t know how to tell them,” she said. “They will be upset.”
“I spent a lot of money and I cannot go back,” she added, saying her best hope is trying to find a legitimate care organisation to transfer her sponsorship.
She’s scared to report the agency to the authorities which is why Sky News is not naming the company.
But it is one of several agencies that only began operating after the government changed the visa rules for carers. It remains on the list of government-approved sponsors for overseas hiring.
‘They’ll do a free shift’
Sky News has spoken to several care homes who described being bombarded by calls from new care agencies with names they don’t recognise.
One care home administrator in northwest England said: “We probably get about four or five calls a day asking if we need agency staff and a lot now are phoning and offering that they’ll do a free shift.”
She said they also get migrants turning up at the home asking for work “two or three times a day”.
As Sky News filmed at the care home, a man and woman, wet through from the pouring rain, knocked on the door, hoping to find some work. They were turned away.
Migrants turning up at the home asking for work
The woman, from Pakistan, said in broken English: “We are looking for work permit, like most of the care homes are giving work permits or jobs.”
‘Very close to people trafficking’
Neil Russell runs PJ Care which has homes in Milton Keynes and Peterborough. He told Sky News: “Over the last six to eight months we’ve seen an increase in approaches from care agencies offering staff to cover shifts. Some of the approaches are very desperate, almost begging us to use them.”
“These new agencies feel a little bit fly-by-night. And it’s quite concerning that we could end up with somebody working here who’s not got the clearances, not got the right training and could end up damaging or harming one of our residents that we’re trying to provide care for.”
Neil Russell runs PJ Care which has homes in Milton Keynes and Peterborough
His company offers legitimate Health and Care Worker visa sponsorship, but last year he paused overseas recruitment after discovering an agent he’d paid to find staff abroad had also illegally charged a worker for her visa.
“It’s very, very close to people trafficking,” he said, about a practice he now believes is widespread in his industry.
Read more:
Social care system ‘would collapse’ without 4m unpaid carers
Why renters are more vulnerable to interest rate rises than mortgage holders
Asked how much bogus recruiters are charging workers he said: “We’re talking about £15,000 and then we’re paying the same amount.”
“£30,000 to bring somebody over – it’s probably more than the transporters are getting for the rubber dinghies coming across the Channel. And they’re doing less work for it. It’s ridiculous.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn offering Health and Care Worker visa holders employment under false pretences.
“The government does not tolerate illegal activity in the labour market and any accusations of illegal employment practices will be thoroughly looked into.
“Those found operating unlawfully may face prosecution and/or removal from the sponsorship register.”
Additional reporting by Nick Stylianou, communities producer.
A nine-year-old girl found dead in Weston-super-Mare has been named on the day police revealed a teenager had been charged with her murder.
Emergency services were called to Lime Close in the Somerset town at 6.09pm on Monday but Aria Thorpe was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said a 15-year-old boy had been charged with her murder and that a preliminary post-mortem found she died from a single stab wound.
The teenage boy – who can’t be named due to his age – will appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court later today.
A police cordon remains in place as forensics officers continue their work.
Flowers and tributes have been left at the scene. Pic: PA
Read more from Sky News:
NHS facing ‘worst-case scenario’ as doctors strike
Arrests over plot to steal ‘tonnes’ of charity clothes to fund crime
Superintendent Jen Appleford, from Avon and Somerset Police, said the community was in shock and Aria’s family were being supported by police.
“It is impossible to adequately describe how traumatic the past 36 hours have been for them and we’d like to reiterate in the strongest possible terms their request for privacy,” she said.
Supt Appleford said police were working with local schools and other agencies to make sure support is available.
Britain loves chocolate.
We’re estimated to consume 8.2kg each every year, a good chunk of it at Christmas, but the cost of that everyday luxury habit has been rising fast.
Whitakers have been making chocolate in Skipton in North Yorkshire for 135 years, but they have never experienced price pressures as extreme as those in the last five.
“We buy liquid chocolate and since 2023, the price of our chocolate has doubled,” explains William Whitaker, the real-life Willy Wonka and the fourth generation of the family to run the business.
William Whitaker, managing director of the company
“It could have been worse. If we hadn’t been contracted [with a supplier], it would have trebled.
“That represents a £5,000 per-tonne increase, and we use a thousand tonnes a year. And we only sell £12-£13m of product, so it’s a massive effect.”
Whitakers makes 10 million pieces of chocolate a week in a factory on the much-expanded site of the original bakery where the business began.
Automated production lines snake through the site moulding, cutting, cooling, coating and wrapping a relentless procession of fondants, cremes, crisps and pure chocolate products for customers, including own-brand retail, supermarkets, and the catering trade.
Steepest inflation in the business
All of them have faced price increases as Whitakers has grappled with some of the steepest inflation in the food business.
Cocoa prices have soared in the last two years, largely because of a succession of poor cocoa harvests in West Africa, where Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce around two-thirds of global supply.
A combination of drought and crop disease cut global output by around 14% last year, pushing consumer prices in the other direction, with chocolate inflation passing 17% in the UK in October.
Skimpflation and shrinkflation
Some major brands have responded by cutting the chocolate content of products – “skimpflation” – or charging more for less – “shrinkflation”.
Household-name brands including Penguin and Club have cut the cocoa and milk solid content so far they can no longer be classified as chocolate, and are marketed instead as “chocolate-flavour”.
Whitakers have stuck to their recipes and product sizes, choosing to pass price increases on to customers while adapting products to the new market conditions.
“Not only are major brands putting up prices over 20%, sometimes 40%, they’ve also reduced the size of their pieces and sometimes the ingredients,” says William Whitaker.
“We haven’t done any of that. We knew that long-term, the market will fall again, and that happier days will return.
“We’ve introduced new products where we’ve used chocolate as a coating rather than a solid chocolate because the centre, which is sugar-based, is cheaper than the chocolate.
“We’ve got a big product range of fondant creams, and others like gingers and Brazil nuts, where we’re using that chocolate as a coating.”
The costs are adding up
A deluge of price rises
Brazil nuts have enjoyed their own spike in price, more than doubling to £15,000 a tonne at one stage.
On top of commodity prices determined by markets beyond their control, Whitakers face the same inflationary pressures as other UK businesses.
“We’ve had the minimum wage increasing every year, we had the national insurance rise last year, and sort of hidden a little bit in this budget is a business rate increase.
“This is a small business, we turn over £12m, but our rates will go up nearly £100,000 next year before any other costs.
“If you add up all the cocoa and all the other cost increases in 2024 and 2025, it’s nearly £3m of cost increases we’ve had to bear. Some of that is returning to a little normality. It does test the relevance of what you do.”
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024