Ditya*, a single mother from Nepal, is used to traveling abroad for work. For years she has made a living as a migrant farmworker, 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 Marks & Spencer (M&S), Tesco, and Waitrose. Some of that money covered the cost of her flight and visa application. The findings suggest that the underfunding of labor-rights 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 laborers at risk of exploitation.

Source: The Guardian June 02, 2022 18:28 UTC