COVID care worker recognised as trafficking victim after Home Office challenge
A care worker recruited during the pandemic has been recognised as a victim of human trafficking after being deceived, exploited and forced into debt bondage under the Health and Care visa system.
MS came to the UK on a health and social care visa during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But before he even arrived in the UK, his recruitment agency pressured him into paying extortionate and unlawful recruitment fees, with the promise that these debts would be repaid once he started working. But in reality, there was no work available to MS; instead, he was told he would have to pay further fees to the agency, which threatened to cancel his sponsorship and visa.
To pay the agency, MS’ mother had borrowed money from relatives and sold family land and jewellery. MS was terrified of being forced to leave the UK while still in significant debt, but due to the restrictive nature of his visa, he was legally only allowed to work for his employer, leaving him trapped without safe alternatives.
MS was pushed into more exploitative, cash-in-hand work until he had a catastrophic workplace injury, which left him hospitalised. He was referred to ATLEU, who recognised the indicators of trafficking and requested that he be referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Despite receiving an initial negative reasonable grounds decision, we successfully challenged the Home Office’s decision through a judicial review in 2025.
We also secured MS’ immigration status and access to public funds, which helped with his journey to recovery from both his injury and the trauma he had experienced. The Home Office has since accepted that MS is a victim of human trafficking. In its conclusive grounds decision, it recognised that MS had been subjected to forced labour, finding that his sponsoring company placed him in debt bondage by threatening his visa status unless he made payments to them. The Home Office accepted that MS was trafficked up until the point of his injury.
‘I lost my left arm in a workplace accident in the UK. This happened because I was exploited and scammed by a care home recruitment company… What makes this even harder to accept is that companies like this are licensed by the UK Government, yet they continue to operate without fear of consequences. These companies exploit vulnerable people, knowing that migrants are often too afraid to speak out because they fear deportation… I am one of many victims of this system. I strongly urge the UK government to take strict action against companies that abuse the visa sponsorship system. Their licences should be cancelled, and they should face heavy fines and serious consequences. Stronger rules and enforcement are urgently needed to prevent others from suffering as I have.’
– MS, survivor of human trafficking
Time and time again, we see restrictive and tied work visas placing migrant workers at serious risk of exploitation and abuse. MS’ case is not an isolated incident but a reflection of a systemic failure in government policy that traps workers in exploitative situations by tying their immigration status to a single employer. Workers must be permitted to change employers while in the UK on a work visa. Without this flexibility, tied visa schemes continue to facilitate trafficking, forced labour and abuse. We are campaigning for the removal of tied visas so that migrant workers can safely access their rights and secure justice when exploitation occurs.
- Jo White, MS’ solicitor at ATLEU
Background
The Skilled Health & Care Worker visa ties the worker’s right to live and work in the UK to a specific job and sponsor and has no recourse to public funds. If a worker wishes to change employer, or loses their job, they must find another licensed sponsoring employer and update their visa within 60 days, making a new application that includes the payment of a further fee. This leaves workers susceptible to their immigration status becoming irregular, or fuels exploitation by pressuring workers to remain in a role despite poor conditions. Problems of illegal fees, exorbitant repayment clauses, non-payment of wages, debt bondage and excessive overtime are widely reported.
UK charity Unseen saw a 606% increase in the number of modern slavery cases in the care sector reported to the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline from 2021 to 2022.