A foreign care worker says she was repeatedly raped by her manager but felt unable to report him to the police for fear of losing her right to work, in a case that exposes the way the UK’s visa system for health and care workers leaves people completely dependent on their employer.
The case is one of more than 170 examples of abuse and exploitation reported by foreign care workers across the UK in an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and Citizens Advice.
Others include a woman who reported being sexually harassed by her landlord in accommodation arranged by her employer, who sponsored her work in the UK, and a live-in carer who was threatened with dismissal and the revocation of her visa when she complained about being made to work 20 hours a day.
A health and care worker visa is only granted once the applicant has a job offer from an approved UK employer, also known as a sponsor. This places employers in an “incredible position of power”, said Dora-Olivia Vicol, the chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, because the worker remains tied to their sponsor for the length of their visa.
“What the Home Office and labour enforcement agencies need to realise is that, in the current conditions, people don’t report exploitation because they don’t want it to backfire,” Vicol added.
Government figures show almost 106,000 visas were granted to care workers in 2023 – almost double the number awarded in 2022. People from India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Bangladesh and Pakistan topped the list of those travelling to the UK to plug the labour shortfall created by Brexit.
The care worker who approached Citizens Advice in 2023 to report that she had been raped several times by her manager attended a rape crisis centre but said she was too worried about losing her pay and visa to complain to the police. .
Andrew Gwynne, the shadow minister for social care, said the findings highlighted how the government had failed in its promise to fix the crisis in social care. “It is vital that we ensure we have a system where exploitation of overseas workers is not tolerated, and steps must be put in place to stop those who perpetrate abuse,” the MP said.
In early 2023, staff at Citizens Advice, a charity that provides confidential support on issues including debt and housing, noticed an increase in calls from people who were on health and care worker visas.
Concerned by the trend, Citizens Advice collected information recorded by its advisers to assess the scale of the problem. In total, the charity gathered evidence from 150 workers, although the true number of people affected is probably far higher. The charity then shared anonymised information about the callers with TBIJ as part of its investigation into exploitative and precarious working conditions faced by migrants in the UK.