Experts warn that a dearth of European workers in post-Brexit Britain will tempt abusive bosses into a race to the bottom. And this could put low-skilled migrants at risk of modern-day forms of slavery.
To keep the country’s fruit orchards and coffee shops churning without European workers, one idea is the introduction of employer-sponsored visas to guarantee a continued supply of low-skilled labour. This was proposed in a report by the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, however, binding workers to fixed employers in sectors such as cleaning and catering may encourage abuse by unscrupulous businesses. So said the Observatory’s director, Madeleine Sumption.
“Employer-sponsored visas give government more control over the work that migrants do, but making sure the visas don’t facilitate abuse is a real challenge,” she said in a statement.
“If workers can’t leave a bad job, there’s more responsibility on government to prevent exploitation. In theory this should be possible… but enforcing labour standards is not an area where the UK has the best track record,” she added.
About 15% of low-skilled workers in Britain come from EU nations, at least 500,000 people, according to the report.
A Home Office spokesman said the British government will adopt an immigration system that works in “the best interests of the whole UK” after Brexit in March 2019.
