FEATURE Migrant workers


Eight-seven-five. Angel still remembers her number, months after leaving the UK. The number assigned to her by the farm. The number used instead of her name when her supervisor ordered her to work faster or punished her.


Angel, a single mother from South Africa, said that she felt like a prisoner, being shouted at and undermined constantly, no matter how hard she worked. Her name and the real number she was called by have been changed to protect her identity. “Even before we start work the supervisors would be screaming at us… they would treat you like an animal,” she said.


Last year, during the hottest summer on record, Angel and hundreds of other workers on Dearnsdale fruit farm in Staffordshire were told to pick and sort about 100-150 kg of strawberries every day inside polytunnels designed to trap heat. It was so hot that at least one worker fainted, she said.


The strawberries they picked ended up on the shelves of some of the UK’s largest supermarkets, including Tesco, Co-op and Lidl.


An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and VICE World News has uncovered widespread mistreatment of migrants working at more than 20 UK farms, nurseries and packhouses in 2022. Workers reported a litany of problems, from not going to the toilet for fear of not hitting targets, to being made to work in gale-force winds.


Many were left in debt and destitution, and some left the UK being owed money by their employers. One worker even had to pull out his own tooth because he could not find appropriate medical care.


For workers like Angel, who took on debt to pay for visas and flights to come to the UK, having their earnings cut was devastating. Even after picking fruit and vegetables for five months, she still has not been able to pay off her £1,250 loan.


Before the UK’s departure from the European Union, the vast majority of the 55,000 casual seasonal workers in British agriculture came from Europe. The seasonal worker visa scheme was launched in 2019 to cover the gaps left by Brexit, but labour rights organisations have warned that the way the six-month visa is designed puts workers at risk of exploitation.


Workers are in the UK for a short period of time and can only work for farms that have contracts with their recruiter, so have difficulty leaving situations in which they feel exploited. Workers often take out loans to pay for the costs of coming to the UK, which means that they are less likely to speak out for fear of losing work and not being able to pay off their debts.


While these workers are often talked about as a solution to the UK’s labour and potential food shortages, their voices rarely form part of the conversation. Even the government’s review of labour shortages is led by a panel made up mainly by food business executives, without a single worker representative.


24 uniteLANDWORKERSummer 2023


In order to understand the reality of working under this scheme, TBIJ conducted interviews with nearly 50 workers who had come to the UK from Nepal, Kazakhstan and South Africa, among other countries, and analysed data from The Work Rights Centre, a charity that advocates for the rights of migrants, covering an additional 23 workers’ experiences. Nearly half of the workers interviewed described a culture of fear.


One Ukrainian worker said that managers at a nursery in Worcestershire made them pull down polytunnels during Storm Eunice, the most powerful storm to hit the UK in decades. He feared for his life.


At about the same time Angel was starting her placement in Staffordshire, more South Africans were arriving at Tuesley Farm, Surrey, which supplies Tesco, Co-op and


Waitrose. One of them was Sybil Msezane, 41, who decided to apply to work as a fruit picker in the UK when her work as a human rights consultant dried up during the COVID-19 pandemic.


“Slavery has been outlawed, but it still exists within the farm,” she said. “You can’t physically abuse people, but you can verbally abuse people and you can threaten them with their livelihood.”


From the first day, she said, she was put to work on the field without training and was expected to hit targets. Msezane said that in her first few weeks, she saw people crying as they returned from the fields.


Msezane said that she used the last of her savings to pay for her flights to the UK, but many of her compatriots approached loan sharks who charged as much as 70 percent in interest.


Some workers arrive in the UK with even bigger debts. Several Nepali workers told TBIJ that their flights and visa cost as much as £1,500. Some paid informal brokers more than £4,000, having been told it would guarantee them a place on the scheme.


While a culture of bullying and cutting shifts does not exist at every farm, workers at some farms still felt other kinds of financial pressures. Farmers often charge workers for


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