Focus on Labour Exploitation

Due diligence cannot mean burden-shifting. Large enterprises must not simply pass obligations downwards, but share responsibility and address the impacts of their own business models and purchasing practices.

Read our blog: labourexploitation.org/news/omnibus...

Last week, the European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Omnibus I package, voting to further weaken the corporate sustainability package by watering down company obligations and reducing the number of businesses required to report on their sustainability.

ICYMI: FLEX's briefing "Rooted in Justice: Reimagining migration into UK agriculture" reviews essential changes to the seasonal worker scheme, making the system safer and fairer for migrant workers.

Keeping people temporary makes it harder to find work and more difficult to challenge exploitation if in work. Further limiting support for asylum seekers will increase destitution & remove options creating huge risks of exploitation. This policy making is cruel and will do much harm

The proposed changes to refugee protection in the UK are performatively cruel, and will drive labour exploitation.

Read FLEX's statement on the Home Secretary's asylum reform: labourexploitation.org/news/flex-st...

Asylum seekers only allowed to stay in the UK temporarily, Mahmood to announce Shabana Mahmood promises ‘the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times’ in Monday speech

These dangerous changes will make migrants' lives unstable, driving them into less visible, less regulated work contexts.

The risk of exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery will only grow.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Why the UK must reinstate the original Overseas Domestic Worker visa

This month, @kalayaan.org.uk Voice of Domestics Workers & @focusonlabour.bsky.social prepared a briefing, endorsed by us and other organisations.

The call was to reinstate the original Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa in the upcoming legislation.

jcwi.org.uk/resource/uk-...

Read Rooted in justice: Reimagining migration into UK agriculture here: labourexploitation.org/publications...

This work is based on our Blueprint for Safer and Fairer Migration for Low-paid Work: labourexploitation.org/publications...

In our latest briefing, FLEX applies its blueprint for migration systems to migrant agriculture workers in the UK.

Our conclusion: overhaul the Seasonal Worker Scheme, and introduce essential changes to ensure workers' safety and dignity.

In 2024, we launched the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Pilot in fishing in the UK, to meaningfully improve the protection of rights and working conditions of migrant workers in fishing.

Read our statement marking the conclusion of this pilot: labourexploitation.org/news/advocat...

Our thanks to Peter Andrews, Vash Arora, Rachel Hewitt, Shereen Hussein, Anushya Kulupana, Ian Robinson and Adam Weiss.

We also want to particularly thank Claire Falconer, co-founder of FLEX and former trustee, for all her tireless work building FLEX into the what it is today.

This #TrusteesWeek we are thanking the FLEX Trustees that steer and support our organisation.

As well as supporting FLEX, our Trustees also do incredible work too, from pioneering legal cases to breakthroughs on social care.

"When the immigration rules make staying in that job a workers’ best option, the worker will stay, even if they are being exploited."

Read @focusonlabour.bsky.social and others commenting on modern slavery in this new piece from @opendemocracy.net

The new Employment Rights Act will be meaningless for these workers if they cannot report exploitation free from the threat of immigration enforcement #LEAG @lawrsuk.bsky.social @workrights.bsky.social @ilpaimmigration.bsky.social

👉 The migrant cleaners freshening up our workplaces frequently have to pay for someone to cover their shift if they are sick: labourexploitation.org/app/uploads/...

👉 Women migrant agricultural workers putting the veggies on our plates are having to withstand sexual harassment and abuse: labourexploitation.org/publications...

👉 Migrant workers supplying our takeaways put up with wage theft and extremely hazardous working conditions in dark kitchens: labourexploitation.org/publications...

We’re working with Peers on the latest immigration bill to ensure that migrant workers can report labour abuses without fear of deportation: labourexploitation.org/publications...

Why is this needed?

Great to see B. Hamwee's amendment calling for Secure Reporting tabled at Report Stage of the Border Security, Immigration & Asylum Bill. This is key to support encourage victims and witnesses of crime including labour exploitation to seek help labourexploitation.org/app/uploads/...

Read our joint briefing on her amendment to the latest immigration bill here: labourexploitation.org/app/uploads/...

@lawrsuk.bsky.social, @workrights.bsky.social, @ilpaimmigration.bsky.social, @focusonlabour.bsky.social #LEAG #SecureReporting

Unnumbered amendment to Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament Baroness Hamwee's amendment After Clause 48 () to Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, proposed during Report stage

The big hole in the new Employment Rights Act is that some workers still have to risk deportation to report labour abuses.

So pleased that Baroness Hamwee is supporting our call for migrant workers to be able to report bad employers without fear: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3929/s...

This week, our team spent two days in Brussels with the @picumofficial.bsky.social network, sharing perspectives and discussing what works when it comes to meaningfully engaging people with lived experience.

Read our compiled analysis of the Seasonal Worker Scheme here: labourexploitation.org/publications...

For a look at women in the Seasonal Worker Scheme in particular, read our briefing: labourexploitation.org/publications...

Last night's BBC Radio 4 feature Abused for Our Food looked at the exploitation of agriculture workers.

The evidence base is clear: short-term, restrictive visas create systematic risks of exploitation. Seasonal migrant workers need better conditions, and safe means to report abuse.

Always wonderful to spend time with @voiceofdws.bsky.social

This weekend @focusonlabour.bsky.social staff met with Voice of Domestic Workers to discuss the intersecting challenges of employment and migration.

We also looked at how the government's upcoming Fair Work Agency needs to work, for domestic workers to be able to work without risk of exploitation.

Find the full video here: labourexploitation.org/news/watch-h...

This #AntiSlaveryDay, preventing labour exploitation for migrant workers must be at the top of the workers’ rights agenda.

This requires not small tweaks, but understanding and resolving the systematic barriers to reporting and tackling exploitation.

Watch our latest video:

Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1333, 14 October 2025 Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules published on 14 October 2025.

Read the announcement here: www.gov.uk/government/p...

Read more about the cost burden on workers here: labourexploitation.org/publications...

We know that workers on the Seasonal Worker Scheme often have to pay to work, from travel costs to illegal fees.

These changes bounce workers back and forth, with accumulating migration costs and increased risk.

Workers should simply be able to renew their visas if work is available.