FEATURE ???
n By Emiliano Mellino of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
As seasonal migrant workers’ numbers soar in the UK, we look at the human cost behind the supermarket label
Ditya*, a single mother from Nepal, is used to travelling abroad for work. For years she has made a living as a migrant farm worker, where she can earn several times what she would in her home country. Last year she applied to become part of the UK government’s seasonal worker visa scheme, picking fruit and vegetables on a farm in Herefordshire that supplies fresh produce to M&S, Tesco and Waitrose.
Ditya got the job, but it came at a huge cost. To secure it, she says she had to pay more than £3,000 – almost a third of what she earned during the six- month post – to recruitment agents. Some of that money covered the cost of her flight and visa application. The rest appears to include illegal fees that labour rights experts describe as “exploitative and extortionate”.
A joint investigation by the Bureau and the Guardian can reveal that as many as 150 Nepalese workers who came to work at Cobrey farm in Herefordshire as part of the government scheme may have paid similar amounts, many of them claiming to have paid agents working for a UK-licensed recruitment company.
The findings suggest that the underfunding of labour enforcement, combined with the rapid expansion of the seasonal worker scheme – which aims to plug shortages created by Brexit and Covid-19 – could be putting thousands of migrant labourers at risk of exploitation.
Tesco and M&S, which both buy from Cobrey, have human rights policies requiring their suppliers to ensure workers are not charged fees. Tesco and M&S told the Bureau they are urgently investigating the matter. Tesco added that any illegal fees had to be repaid in full. The workers who spoke to the Bureau said they have not yet been reimbursed.
A Waitrose spokesperson said the supermarket could not comment on the case, which was a live investigation, but it would “take whatever action” it needed to.
“We need food on the shelves in supermarkets, and [migrant workers]
have come to make that happen,” said Emily Kenway, a researcher and former adviser to the UK’s independent anti-slavery commissioner. “We’ve got to hold up our side of the bargain, which does not include workers being fleeced in order to get here.”
The UK government launched the seasonal worker pilot scheme in 2019 to address concerns that the withdrawal from the EU would cause a shortage of labour for harvesting jobs on farms. Its rules state that workers should only pay a visa application fee of £259 (which was £244 until April this year) and travel costs. Any additional recruitment fees are illegal under UK law and can result in a labour provider being stripped of its licence.
Workers pay agents’ fees Workers told the Bureau that they paid the fees to agents working for the
Nepalese company My Careers HR Solutions, which Poseidon Human Capital, a recruitment firm
headquartered in London, says it controls day to day. Poseidon had in turn been hired by the Brighton-based charity Concordia, one of four organisations that operate recruitment for the UK government scheme. Concordia had been contracted to find workers to pick fruit and vegetables at Cobrey farm.
Simon Bowyer, CEO of Concordia, told the Bureau that his company conducted an investigation and interviewed more than half of the 150 people recruited to work at the farm by Poseidon. He said a “significant percentage” told them they had paid fees to My Careers HR Solutions, its chairman John Khadka, Poseidon or “other named associates”, and that most payments were between RS300,000 (£1,975) and RS750,000 (£4,940).
Poseidon director Matthew Hurley said the company hired its own investigators, from a “reputable law firm”, who found that no officers from his company had been complicit in illegal fees being taken.
15 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2022
The costs for a Nepalese worker to participate in the scheme, including charges for preparing documents, visa costs and and logistics, are estimated to be over £2,000, Hurley said. If farms covered these costs, potential “exposure to payment of illicit fees would be eradicated”, he said.
Khadka, who was the chairman of My Careers HR Solutions in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu at the time of the alleged breaches, said the
investigation found two deposits made by workers to his accounts. He said that both were from longtime friends who he was helping to transfer money.
In March, Khadka denied that his company had recruited Nepalese workers to the UK or that he had any dealings with Poseidon. He subsequently told the Bureau that he was suspended from the My Careers HR Solutions board as a result of Poseidon’s investigation, but added that it found the allegations made against him to be “incorrect”.
Concordia has now terminated its relationship with Poseidon and alerted the Gangmasters’ and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), the government body in charge of licensing labour providers and tackling exploitation in the agriculture sector. A spokesperson for the GLAA said it does not “provide a running commentary on specific investigations”.
New data gathered by the Bureau suggests this was not an isolated incident. According to figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests, the most common allegations in the agriculture sector that were brought to the GLAA last year were in relation to recruitment fees. A total of 25 such allegations were made in 2021, more than three times the number made in 2018, the year prior to the scheme’s launch.
Kenway, the former adviser to the anti- slavery commissioner, said the GLAA has in the past been more likely to pick up on these issues because it had working relationships with labour enforcement agencies in countries
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