Migratory fruit picking, charges thousands of illegal fees to work on UK farms, finds | Nepal

Ditya*, a single mother from Nepal, is used to traveling abroad for work. For many years she has made a living as a migrant farm worker, where she earns several times what she earns in her native country. Last year she applied to be part of the UK government’s seasonal worker visa scheme, picking fruits and vegetables from a farm in Herefordshire that supplies fresh produce to Marks & Spencer (M&S), Tesco and Waitrose.

Ditya got a job, but it came at a great price. To secure it, she said, she had to pay her recruiters more than 3,000, nearly a third of what she received in her six months.

Some of that money covered the cost of flights and visa applications. The rest appear to include illegal fees, which labor rights experts describe as exploitative and extortionate.

According to a joint investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and The Guardian, as many as 150 Nepali workers who came to work at Cobri Farms in Herefordshire as part of a government plan may have paid similar amounts, many of them a UK licensed hiring firm. Paid agent who works for.

Research suggests that the lack of funding for labor rights enforcement, coupled with the rapid expansion of seasonal worker systems to fill the shortages posed by Brexit and COVID-19, could put thousands of migrant workers at risk of exploitation.

Tesco and M&S buying from Cobrey have human rights policies that ensure that their suppliers do not charge their workers fees.

Tesco and M&S said they were investigating the matter urgently. Tesco added that the illegal fees must be reimbursed in full. But workers say they haven’t been compensated yet.

A Waitrose spokeswoman said she could not comment on specific cases that were actually investigations, but said necessary action would be taken.

The UK government launched a seasonal worker pilot plan in 2019 to address concerns that leaving the EU could create a shortage of labor needed to harvest jobs on farms. According to the regulations, workers only have to pay a visa application fee of 259 (244 by April this year) and travel expenses. Additional recruitment fees are illegal under UK law and may result in the disqualification of a labor provider.

Employees, who requested anonymity, said London-based recruiting firm Poseidon Human Capital paid an agent working for My Careers HR Solutions, a Nepalese company that manages its day-to-day operations. Poseidon was hired by Concordia, a charitable organization based in Brighton, one of the four organizations running the British government initiatives. Concordia was contracted to find workers to harvest fruits and vegetables at Cobrey Farms.

Concordia CEO Simon Bowyer said his company conducted the research and interviewed more than half of the 150 people Poseidon recruited to work on the farm. He said a significant percentage paid commissions to My Careers HR Solutions, Chairman John Khadka, Poseidon or other nominated associates, with most payments ranging between RS300,000 (1,935) and RS750,000 (4,840).

Poseidon’s director, Matthew Hurley, said the company has hired its own investigators from a reputable law firm.

Hurley said the cost of Nepali workers participating in the plan, including document preparation, visa fees and logistics costs, is estimated to be over 2,000. If the farm could cover these costs, he said, potential exposure to illegal fee payments would be eradicated.

Khadka, who was chairman of Kathmandu-based My Careers HR Solutions at the time of the accident, said the investigation found that employees had deposited two deposits into their accounts. He said both came from an old friend he helped transfer money.

In March, Khadka denied that his company had recruited Nepali workers to the UK or had any dealings with Poseidon. He added that subsequent Poseidon investigations found that he had been suspended from the My Careers HR Solutions board, but that the allegations were wrong.

Concordia has now ended its relationship with Poseidon and has issued a warning to the Gangmasters and Labor Abuse Authority (GLAA), a government agency that licenses labor providers and deals with exploitation in the agricultural sector. A GLAA spokesperson said it would not provide comment on specific investigations.

Bishal Tamang, an independent migration researcher and former migrant worker, said that thousands of Nepali workers, mainly in the Gulf and Malaysia, who claim to be hired through a third party, are receiving unpaid loans that are difficult to repay. In the worst-case scenario, it has resulted in workers taking their own lives, he said.

The seasonal worker scheme expects to issue up to 40,000 visas this year. Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

They will borrow money from lenders that charge high interest and provide deeds of land as a guarantee. He said it is usually a land that the family has passed on for generations.

Tamang said he had previously paid RS100,000 (645) to get a job in Saudi Arabia, but workers working in the UK could claim ten times more.

According to figures obtained through Freedom of Information Request, the most common agricultural sector argument made to the GLAA last year was about hiring costs. A total of 25 such charges were filed in 2021, more than triple the number in 2018, a year before the initiative began.

We need food on the shelves of the supermarket, [migrant workers] Emily Kenway, a member of the British Independent Anti-Slavery Commission and former advisor, said: We had to stay on our side of the deal that didn’t involve shearing workers to get here.

Kenway said the GLAA is more likely to address these issues because it has partnered with labor enforcement agencies in countries like Romania, where most migrant workers have come before Brexit. However, GLAA resources have not kept pace with the growing number of countries recruiting workers in 58 countries as of 2021.

Kenway knew something like this would happen. Everyone who works on labor rights, modern slavery, and human trafficking said from the outset that planning and lack of resources make it very likely that planning will lead to exploitation.

The seasonal worker scheme, which issued less than 2,500 visas in 2019, expects to issue up to 40,000 this year. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior’s funding for GLAA last year was $7 million less than it spent on publications, stationery and printing.

Nepal sent 395 seasonal workers to the UK in the first three months of the year, the fourth-largest country on the list, data released this week by the Ministry of the Interior.

Leigh Day’s attorney Carolin Ott said the new findings were very worrisome. She said it is absolutely critical that this rapidly expanding plan puts in place the necessary safeguards to prevent exploitation and protect the rights of seasonal workers.

Several workers who joined Cobrey Farms in 2021 said hiring costs accounted for a significant portion of their earnings. A Nepali immigrant who harvested asparagus and blueberries said he paid the recruiter about $3,100. He said the farm HR team learned over the summer of exorbitant fees charged by some workers from My Careers HR Solutions.

Ditya said that when she returned to Nepal, she paid 4,420 including a 1,260 deposit. She lied that she only paid for her visa and flight because she didn’t want to be an issue when Concordia asked about her hiring costs during her investigation.

Chris Chinn, who runs the family Cobrey, said the farm will notify GLAA and work with them if violations of labor standards are suspected or observed. He said the Cobreys license means it has been assessed to meet the stringent standards set by the GLAA.

Concordias Simon Bowyer said his company won’t give refunds to its employees, but would like to see My Careers HR Solutions do so. I don’t know the exact nature of the relationship between My Careers and Poseidon, he said, but we weren’t happy when we found a relationship whatever it was.

TBIJ and Guardian also saw training certificates issued to Cobrey workers bearing the British Council and Ofqual’s logos. Both said they did not authenticate the person or company named in the document. Hurley described this issue as an authentication mistake being addressed.

*Name has been changed.

Further report by Pramod Acharya

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