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Seasonal worker visas are tying migrants into exploitation [1]
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Date: 2025-05
Aziz makes a powerful case for wholesale reform of the TFWP, tackling its tied nature, in-built barriers to justice, and prevention of settlement. She, like many other advocates in Canada, critiques the government’s sticking plaster approach to addressing the scheme’s problems, such as its 2019 decision to introduce an open work permit for workers facing abuse or exploitation rather than investing in wholesale reform. Aziz sets out the programme’s challenges and emphasises the urgent need to listen to workers when constructing rights-respecting immigration systems.
In the UK, Valeria Ragni looks at the impact of the rise of TMPs since the country’s departure from the European Union and consequent loss of access to workers from the continent. In particular, the UK established a new, two-year seasonal worker pilot in 2019. This led to the establishment of the UK Seasonal Worker Visa (SWV) – a six-month visa in horticulture and ten-week visa in poultry where workers are sponsored by a licensed ‘scheme operator’ and employed by a farm.
Home Office data for 2023 shows that 32,724 individuals across 65 different nationalities were issued a visa, comprising 62% of “seasonal casual or gang workers” in agriculture. The scheme has been widely condemned for the safeguarding risks it poses to workers. This includes risk of severe exploitation, as outlined in a letter to the previous UK government issued by four United Nations envoys.
The very nature of the SWV makes it hard to organise workers, so that they could push for better conditions themselves. Their stay in the UK is short, there is no minimum language requirement, their earnings are low, and their workplaces are dispersed. Unite the union, which traditionally represents agricultural workers, has struggled to organise horticultural workers for these reasons, coupled with employer hostility in a sector that has very little tradition of trade union engagement.
The Worker Support Centre (WSC), principally responds to the risks posed to workers in Scotland through this scheme. Ragni, WSC’s centre manager, outlines the needs met by the WSC, how we support workers, and what we do to address gaps in oversight and to achieve decent work for all.
Margarita Permonaite, WSC’s peer engagement officer continues this discussion by exploring how WSC supports workers to build solidarity and power. Workers on the SWV are structurally vulnerable, with few cards in their hand to play. They are excluded from most dismissal rights, face barriers to healthcare, and are restricted from social benefits.
Following this, Jean-Pierre Du Toit, a seasonal worker to the UK, explains why he's never coming back. Having just returned home from a season in UK agriculture, Jean-Pierre sets out in detail what he experienced and what he thinks needs to change to better protect workers on temporary migration programmes such as the SWV.
On Israel, Maayan Niezna sets out the history of the Israeli tied visa regime – the ‘Binding Arrangement’ for both migrant workers and Palestinian workers. Established in the 1990s, this programme was actually rejected in a successful constitutional challenge in 2006 on the grounds that it exposed workers to the risk of exploitation. It continues despite this ruling with private labour recruiters playing an intermediary and compliance role. In a second piece, Aelad Cahana from Kav La Oved provides detail on how this regime is working now. They look at recruitment debt, worker dependency on employers, and their impact on exploitation.
From Germany, Kateryna Danilova writes about working conditions for seasonal agricultural workers and the work of the Fair Farm Labour Initiative. The FFLI is a network of trade unions and advice organisations that jointly conduct seasonal migrant worker outreach in agricultural settings. It enables workers to access a range of services and information, and supports the unionisation of temporary workers in German agriculture. Danilova outlines how it works in practice.
Finally, from the Gulf, Vani Saraswathi writes about the much-discussed kafala system. They explain why the tweaks and safeguards that have been introduced have done so little to address the power imbalance that the kafala system creates.
A conversation is needed
The examples set out in this series highlight the common issues faced by workers on TMPs across the world. Some national governments, despite their own flawed schemes, have at least started to question the truth of the ‘triple win’. They are exploring ways to fulfil temporary labour requirements whilst not drastically increasing the risks of exploitation.
Many more need to face up to the inherent risks in TMPs and the drivers of exploitation embedded in the immigration systems themselves. In the UK, the last government sought to distance itself from such questions. Our hope is that this new government will not do the same.
We hope that this series provides evidence and ideas of how to build rights-based immigration systems that take account of power and who is being supported to wield it. This power imbalance is the common thread that binds many TMPs. It tips the odds against the very workers that drive our key industries, making them both essential yet entirely expendable. It’s time to put some new cards in their hands.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/seasonal-worker-temporary-migrant-visas-are-tying-migrants-into-exploitation/
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