After the Covid pandemic the Home Office lost control over the skilled worker visa route, leaving many vulnerable to modern slavery and exploitation.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee claims that the Home Office is ineffective and slow at tackling exploitation. Its inquiry into skilled worker visas has also warned the government it does not know if people leave the UK once their visas expire.
The report of the committee, which was published today, said that the Home Office had not properly considered the risks associated with non-compliance of visa rules and the exploitation of migrant worker. The skilled worker route, which opened to assist the social care sector in the face of the pandemic during that time, is based upon a sponsorship model, where the right to remain in Britain is determined by the employer.
The 16-member committee said that migrant workers are vulnerable to exploitation because of their reliance on the government. They heard evidence from workers who were subjected to debt bondage and worked excessive hours.
The PAC found that far more people than expected had applied for the skilled worker visa route in 2020.
The Home Office issued 931 000 visas for skilled workers to overseas applicants, including their dependents. This was contrary to the forecasts of ministers. From December 2020 until the end of 2024 1,18 million people applied for entry to the UK through this route. This included 630,000 dependants.
This route allowed employers to recruit international workers to address skills shortages, but also resulted in an increase of 80% in permanent residents in the UK from 2021 to 2024. The number of asylum claims after entry on a skilled workers visa increased from 53 in the year 2022 to 5300 in 2024.
In its report, the PAC noted that Home Office didn’t know how many skilled workers with visas were referred to as victims of modern slavery. The effectiveness of the arrangements for safeguarding care workers whose employer’s sponsor licence has been revoked is also not clear. In addition, not enough action was taken to identify fake agents overseas that charge applicants unnecessary fees and claim they can find them work in Britain.
Geoffrey Clifton Brown MP: “The government has not yet gathered basic information such as how many skilled worker visa holders have been victims of modern slavery, or whether they leave the UK when their visas expire.
The Home Office was unable to determine whether people who lost their sponsorship had been taken on by another sponsor or what happened when their visa expired.
The PAC found that the Home Office had not conducted exit checks on the route since it was introduced. It also did not know how many people were working illegally in Britain and how many returned to their home countries after their visas expired.
The MPs said that they were also concerned about new restrictions imposed on overseas recruitment of care workers due to the increasing demand but acknowledged that the NHS 10 year plan would address the lack in parity between pay and conditions for the NHS and social services, making it easier to hire more domestic workers in the sector.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown MP, Chair of the Committee said that the popularity of skilled worker visas came at “a painfully high cost” – both to workers’ safety from labour market abuses and the integrity of system by people who don’t follow the rules.
Our inquiry has revealed that serious problems with the system have been a long-standing problem. The government has not collected basic information such as how many skilled worker visa holders have been victims of modern slavery, or whether they leave the UK when their visas expire.
He said that ministers need to understand the role immigration plays in workforce strategies for sectors, and how plans for domestic workers will help reduce skills shortages.
Clifton Brown said, “The government no longer has an excuse for the global crisis that was caused by pandemics if they operate this system without due care and on the fly.”
The PAC concluded that the Home Office should collaborate more with other departments to develop sectoral workforce strategies. The new Labour Market Evidence Group was also needed to create a stronger evidence-base on the domestic labor market.
The report contains a number of recommendations that are designed to assist the Home Office in working with other government agencies and departments to gain a better understanding of visa routes and their issues.
Legal Comment
Ashley Stothard is an immigration lawyer with Freeths. She said that the PAC’s findings “highlight a deeply worrying, but not entirely unexpected, failure in UK immigration oversight.” The system for skilled workers was supposed to be flexible and responsive to the labour market’s needs, but it has come at a cost to basic safeguards and accountabilities.
“The delegation of enforcement penalizes innocent people due to administrative mistakes and allows dishonest actors cheat the system.” – Ashley Stothard Freeths
The Home Office has failed to provide exit data, and to monitor if visa holders are leaving the UK. This is a breach of duty towards the UK public. Instead of building a robust immigration enforcement system, Home Office outsourced the responsibility to employers and landlords, as well as banks, who are not trained or equipped to deal with the complexity of immigration compliance. This delegation of enforcement also punishes innocent people for administrative mistakes and allows dishonest individuals to cheat the system.
The sponsorship system is vulnerable on a systemic level. The power imbalance created by tying a migrant’s legal status to one employer is an opportunity for exploitation. The PAC found that excessive hours and debt bondage were not isolated incidents, but rather symptoms of a system with structural flaws.
The government’s recent decision to stop overseas recruitment for social care is perhaps politically beneficial, but does not address root cause of the problem.
It is important that immigration policies are not influenced by short term political pressures, but rather by a long-term, evidence-based understanding about workforce needs and human right obligations.
“Immigration has a complex system that is constantly changing – in terms of legal, economic, and human factors. This requires careful coordination, not reactive policymaking and piecemeal delegating. “The Home Office has failed to meet this challenge.”
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