Ministers should resist calls from employers to open new visa routes that could expose migrant workers to exploitation, the UK government’s Migration Advisory Committee said on Tuesday.
Business leaders have been pressing the government to help them tackle labour shortages in sectors ranging from agriculture and food processing to construction and logistics by allowing them to hire more workers from overseas on short-term visas.
But the MAC — the body tasked with advising the government on immigration — said the design and poor policing of existing visa schemes had left migrants open to abuse.
The committee pointed to evidence that many migrants were going into debt to pay fees charged by recruiters in their home country, or to meet the costs of moving to the UK, including the high visa charges levied by the British government, with some becoming trapped in debt bondage as a result.
It said the design of the immigration system could itself “facilitate exploitation”,…
