Migrant workers have been reported to be facing exploitation due to power imbalances and the migrant sponsorship system. A new report ‘Safeguarding sponsored workers’ from the migrant support charity Work Rights Centre (WRC) found that over 39,000 overseas healthcare workers have been exploited by their employers. The report, launching on 29 April, details how the migrant-sponsorship system that was heavily utilised post-Brexit for overseas care workers leaves employees overworked and severely underpaid at the hands of often abusive employers.
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‘We are watching a crisis of migrant worker exploitation unfold as thousands of people are trapped in situations of overwork, abuse or destitution,’ said Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the WRC and report co-author. ‘Unless this government takes action, we will look back on this as a national scandal, ashamed that it was allowed to carry on for so long.’
Health leaders have endorsed the report, calling for change in the sponsorship-migrant system. The research suggested that migrant workers could be better protected if the Government took measures such as protecting immigration statuses for migrants seeking new sponsors and increasing penalties for abusive employers. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has supported the findings of the report, claiming that the abuse of migrant healthcare workers has been a longstanding issue within the nursing workforce.
‘We are receiving hundreds of calls a year from nursing staff fearing they’ve been victims of exploitation, and any further delay risks more staff coming to harm while the full extent of exploitation remains unknown,’ said RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger. ‘The current visa sponsorship system leaves migrant nursing staff vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers. There must be a full review of the system and an end to the ability of employers to weaponise staff’s immigration status against them.’