* Foreign caregivers defrauded by dishonest placement agents
* Migrant trapped in debt bondage
* UK Healthcare Surveys Double
By Emma Batha LONDON, March 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Maya, an office manager in India, heard about the opportunity to work as a care assistant in Britain, she jumped at the chance to gain experience and send cash home, but now she’s very worried. She is in debt and says she and her colleagues were “treated like slaves. “
The mother of two is one of tens of thousands of foreign carers who have arrived in Britain as part of an initiative introduced in 2022 to tackle severe staff shortages in the country’s fragile social welfare system. But reports of exploitation have skyrocketed since the plan. A migration expert described the care sector as “a veritable Wild West. “
Maya and other carers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they ended up working long hours for little money after paying thousands of pounds to an agent in India to get a job at a care company in northern England. They said workers were too afraid to complain in case they were fired, which would put them in danger of deportation because their visas were tied to their jobs.
“We have the idea of going back to India, but how can we do it with so much debt?We are trapped,” said Maya, who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. “I promised my space to the bank to get the loan to come here. . . And all our relatives lent us money. “
Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, which represents home care providers, said the industry is heavily involved with unethical operators, adding that there were “shameful and outrageous” stories of others being scammed out of massive sums or housed in “cockroaches. “infested slums. ” In some cases, other people were promised a job in Britain, only to find that there were none when they arrived. Others were fired after their employers went bankrupt or lost their contracts.
“They have to rely on food banks and charities,” Townson added. “Many are enslaved by debt. They sold everything to come here. “
Gang Masters
The public union UNISON said the real figure would be higher because many caregivers do not report abuse for fear of deportation or do not know where to seek help. “A lot of those employers are risking their opportunities,” said Gavin Edwards, an expert on social coverage. in UNISON.
“The strength of dating is so uneven and that’s why some unscrupulous people can get away with it. “He said the severe underfunding of the UK healthcare sector and the prevalence of profit-first organisations had created “a race to the bottom”.
Britain opened a new visa pathway for foreign carers in early 2022 to fill some 165,000 vacancies in the sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Britain’s exit from the European Union. According to official data, around 140,000 fitness workers have been granted since then. visas, mainly from India, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
Maya’s story began in April 2022 when she enlisted the help of an Indian agent named Rishin Stanley in the southern city of Kochi to help her find a project sponsor.
He said he asked for invoices totaling more than 10,000 pounds ($12,810). Former colleagues have told similar stories. Some paid even more.
When one of them asked for the maximum amount, the agent replied that sponsorship was expensive. But after arriving in Britain, the women were surprised to realise that it was the employer who covered the costs of sponsorship.
Companies that hire foreign staff will have to pay a licence, a certificate of sponsorship for each employee and other fees of up to £5,000 per employee. These prices cannot be passed on to employees. The carers said they paid some of the cash to the agent but were asked to transfer up to £5,000 to a UK bank account they said belonged to Ease Healthcare, the company sponsoring them.
Deepa, another caregiver who also asked to use a pseudonym, said she paid for accommodation and management fees, but did not get any breakdown and was only given accommodation for a few weeks. The Thomson Reuters Foundation has become aware of the correspondence between Stanley and Sheffield Ease Healthcare. The firm indicated that he worked for a company called IMTP.
But Stanley told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that he had never helped anyone find a job in Britain. He said he hadn’t heard of Ease Healthcare or IMTP, he’s listed as a regional representative on the IMTP website. IMTP chief executive Sasidharan Nambiar said the company doesn’t organize tasks for caregivers, but Stanley does it on the sidelines.
‘UNPAID WORK’ Ease Healthcare, which supplies local authorities, hired the women to work as carers, assisting the elderly, disabled and with health problems at home.
A task offer letter promised an annual salary of £20,480 for a 39-hour week, the minimum wage for foreign carers in 2022. The letter from Ease Healthcare provided Stanley’s email for questions.
Caregivers said their days at 7 a. m. And they ended up late at night, leaving them little time to sleep. They said they only got paid for appointments, which are general in home care, but didn’t last 39 hours a week.
Although they weren’t running constantly, they said they had to stay on call. Caregivers had to log their hours through an app, but said they were replaced and didn’t get paid for all their work.
“In India, we thought there was no exploitation or slavery in Britain,” Deepa said. “We thought Britain was because it had regulations and regulations. “Ease Healthcare’s chief executive, Essie Manomano, denied the caregivers’ allegations and said no one was underpaid. mistreated or threatened with dismissal.
He said there was no staff available between appointments and that the company used an outside accountant and popular scheduling software. “People are free to leave. We don’t have anyone’s passport. We provide pastoral support,” he added.
Manomano said he knew Stanley. He responded to emailed questions about endorsement deals. Fear of reporting
The Thomson Reuters Foundation first spoke to Maya, Deepa and three other caregivers in mid-2023, but they didn’t need their stories published until they discovered new sponsors — a lengthy process. Care industry experts said foreign caregivers rely on sponsors to obtain visas. , employment, and professional credentials made it difficult to report it.
Homecare’s Townson said some of the disruption in the sector was due to broader systemic and investment issues. “Councils are so in need of cash that they’re cutting home care fees, and that’s encouraging labor abuse,” he said.
“Right now, no one pays for care. ” In the past, local government gave care corporations fixed-fee contracts to facilitate planning, but now they pay based on appointments that vary from day to day.
In some cases, care businesses have gone bankrupt, leaving staff unemployed and destitute. Many carers were threatened with eviction last year when their employer in the east of England went bankrupt.
Foreign caregivers are not required to the social coverage formula and only have 60 days to locate a new sponsor before having to leave the country. Deepa, who now works at a nursing home, said it had been difficult to find a new sponsor.
“Everyone asks for cash,” he says. They take advantage of people’s powerlessness. “A spokesperson for the UK Home Office said it was “determined to eliminate exploitation” and would investigate cases where huge sums of money were allegedly demanded from carers.
The government is this week introducing a new rule under which care providers can only sponsor migrant staff if they are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, an independent watchdog. Maya has now discovered a task at a care home in the city, however, she works up to 72 hours a week to pay off a £26,000 debt.
“I thought I’d have a life here. . . But I had to borrow again and again just to survive,” he said. “I would never have come if I had known I would face so many problems. “
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