Emiliano Mellino

Aside from everything else, deeply confused policy from govt here. Is care work (a major driver of migration) low skilled?

Or is it, as another govt Department thinks, worthy of better pay and conditions through better collective bargaining (the Fair Pay Agreement policy)?

Yeah you know that body charged with enforcing and advising employers and workers the biggest overhaul in workers' rights in a generation from April?

I can reveal its precursor body is struggling to even cover its existing costs, so much so it had to cut spending last year.

Doesn't bode well!

Tom Belger column: ‘Why is Labour making migrant exploitation easier?’ - LabourList Anyone talking about immigration should admit and debate the trade-offs between prices and immigrant and other workers' rights.

"Britain already has fewer inspectors than most similar countries. Last year the current Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority was actually cutting spending,reducing legal, interpreter & other services to curb a budget deficit."

Great piece by @tombelger.bsky.social
labourlist.org/2026/03/why-...

And despite being told they’re anti semitic and homophobic they voted for a party led by a gay, Jewish man. This is significant.

Despite being continually accused of not integrating, Muslims have voted in numbers, and against a party with a Muslim Home Sec whose immigration policies and actions regarding Gaza they strongly opposed.Instead they found common value with a white British woman who spoke to them locally and beyond.

There’s a special kind of knot in your throat that comes with being a migrant in Britain today, the kind that always stays in the back of your mind. I’m forever indebted to the Greens for making it go away in a sigh of relief at least for one night. Onwards to the next! 💚

A reflection from the leader of a migration charity. We have been told over and over again by politicians - even from “partners” and “allies” that we will not win on our policies unless we concede. Throw some migrants under the bus - they’re too unfavourable. Public doesn’t agree with us.

Sky News hearing Labour canvassers found that doubling (and tripling) the route to settlement has caused significant concern with those directly affected (Commonwealth migrants who have arrived in last 3 years)

Sheer scale of changes not yet on the general media radar, though MPs hearing a lot

Israel responsible for two-thirds of record 129 press killings in 2025, says CPJ Committee to Protect Journalists report says Israel also to blame for 81% of ‘intentionally targeted’ journalist killings

Of the 129 journalists and media workers who were killed in 2025, two-thirds of them were killed by Israel.

Israel was also responsible for 81% of killings that the Committee to Protect Journalists classified as “intentionally targeted.”

YouTube video by The Examination The “independent” researcher paid by Juul

💸 Juul paid an “independent” nicotine researcher €7,000… and flew him business class to lobby Israeli health officials against a high-strength vape ban.

How independent are the scientists shaping global vaping laws? 👇
🎥 youtube.com/shorts/nf7zL...

#OtD 24 Feb 1915 Amelio Robles Avila, a trans officer in Emiliano Zapata's Mexican revolutionary army, intervened in close combat in Salto de Valadez and Mazatlan, Guerrero. His unit battled a government column from noon and defeated them by evening www.tiktok.com/@workingclas...

Reform’s local councils are bringing climate denial into the… Top polling party’s moves to ‘undeclare’ the climate emergency and scrap net zero targets could be a sign of things to come

I keep hearing that the rise of the populist right is one of the biggest threats to the climate. Watching Trump’s second term it’s hard to disagree

So @tbij.bsky.social looked at what councils controlled by Reform UK are doing on climate

What we found was pretty shocking

Billionaire halts mass eviction after London Centric investigation Exclusive: Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital hoped to replace hundreds of tenants with more lucrative temporary accommodation. That plan has been shelved – for now.

Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital halts mass eviction after London Centric uncovered what was going on. Hundreds of Londoners now receiving bizarre door-to-door visits blaming misinformation and being asked to record videos saying they don't want to be evicted. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Reform mayor courted US oil and gas executive about fracking in UK Exclusive: Documents show Andrea Jenkyns asked how she could help firm after major gas find in Lincolnshire

I spent several months trying to get access to FOI documents of Mayor Andrea Jenkyns' correspondence with fracking companies in Lincolnshire.

Read about what I found in my latest piece for The Guardian!

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A fascinating piece and a good reminder that "migrant" or "ethnic minority" communities are not a monolith, but contain multitudes.

Labour can no longer rely on the ‘ethnic minority vote’ Foreign policy, home country politics and differing economic instincts fracture voter priorities

Fab Inside Politics by @georginaq.bsky.social today:

Home Office to begin removing post-Brexit residence rights from EU citizens whom it believes haven't actually been living in the UK, from March 2026 committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

The image shows a Rivet Joint plane, with a green radar in the background.The text reads: “Gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military – but they had no idea”

NEW INVESTIGATION: Low-paid gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military – but they had no idea

Story in partnership with @restofworld.org & @crikey.com.au

A part of Akinola Davies Jr's speech the BBC decided not to air

Last time a Reform politician said the minimum wage should be cut we looked into his businesses & found three of his former employees had won employment tribunal claims against him.

But despite what the tribunal ordered, he didn't pay a single judgment
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Last time a Reform politician said the minimum wage should be cut we looked into his businesses & found three of his former employees had won employment tribunal claims against him.

But despite what the tribunal ordered, he didn't pay a single judgment
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

The image shows people working on a farm in the UK. The headline reads: "The UK government has been slammed for 'callous' inaction on farmworkers abuse"

NEW: For the last few years, calls to reform the seasonal worker visa have gone largely ignored

Now, the government has even rejected several recommendations from its own independent immigration advisers...

Story link in the replies ⬇️ @mellino.bsky.social

While Labour continues to target vulnerable migrants for detention and deportation, undermines modern slavery protections and actively tries to end some human rights for migrants, they also refuse to take the most basic steps to reform the seasonal workers visa to help reduce risks of exploitation.

NEW from @tbij.bsky.social:
The government has rejected calls by its OWN independent Migration Advisory Committee for visa reforms to protect migrant farm workers from exploitation

Labour seems wedded to a model of immigration based on creating a subclass of exploited worker.
It's sick.

Government criticised for inaction on farmworkers abuse Criticism comes after the rejection of various ideas, put forward by its own advisers, on how to protect migrant workers from exploitation

Thank you, as always @mellino.bsky.social, for excellent reporting on the ongoing scandal of conidtions for the workers who put food on our tables 🙏

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

Thanks for sharing! This is a scandal that is being too easily ignored.

The independent anti-slavery commissioner said the gov had missed an opportunity to fix the visa.

“It is unacceptable that too many face withheld pay, unsafe conditions and abuse – and feel they cannot speak out because their job, income and immigration status all depend on a single recruiter"

The SNP's business spokesperson Chris Law MP said: The government's "failure to act upon these recommendations and instead choose to follow the policy of the previous Conservative government demonstrates a callous lack of care and compassion for vulnerable workers.”

Government criticised for inaction on farmworkers abuse Criticism comes after the rejection of various ideas, put forward by its own advisers, on how to protect migrant workers from exploitation

The MAC recommended modest changes such as: Guaranteed pay for the first two months to prevent exploitation, more powers and data for labour enforcement and proper consideration to the "employer pays principle".
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

Text from the article that says: In its review, the committee cited research that found some workers pay as much as £5,000 to come to the UK on the six-month visa. The debts they take on to cover travel, visas and other costs can make them susceptible to mistreatment and poor working conditions, the research said. One employee mentioned in the research said that in the farm where he worked “bosses and supervisors treat the workers like slaves”. Others said that they had reported problems only to be threatened with deportation or blacklisting from future work. It also cited a worker’s account of being sexually threatened by multiple colleagues and then told by her managers that it was easier to get rid of her than to move the perpetrators.

The recommendations came after a review of the scheme that included: a worker saying he was treated like a slave, workers threatened with blacklisting & woman who complained about sexual threats from a group of men, only for managers to tell her it was easier to get rid of her than her colleagues.