(C) OpenDemocracy
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Visa reform is the minimum owed to exploited care workers [1]
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Date: 2025-08
A contradiction sits at the heart of the problems currently facing the UK care sector. On the one hand, there remains an acute shortage of workers to bathe, feed, dress, converse with and comfort the UK’s aging population. There was a 6.8% vacancy rate in England’s care sector in March 2025, according to data from Skills for Care. For domiciliary care roles it was 9.4%. On the other hand, there are tens of thousands of migrant care workers in the UK who, due to a recent government crackdown, are now unemployed and desperately seeking new jobs.
The UK government rolled out a new, £16m employment scheme last year to address both problems. This created 15 regional rematching hubs to connect migrant carers in need of sponsorship with legitimate, vetted employers. The concept was straightforward enough. But so far it has largely failed.
We at the Work Rights Centre provide free employment and immigration legal advice to migrant care workers. We speak to people in need of assistance every day. But in all those conversations, we have only met a handful who have found jobs through the scheme. The Home Office’s strict visa requirements and out of touch expectations are the reason why.
Into the unknown
In recent years, UK Visas and Immigration, a part of the Home Office, increased enforcement action on rogue care agencies as reports of exploitation became more prevalent. Between July 2022 and December 2024, 470 care agencies lost their licences to sponsor migrant workers after being found to be breaking the rules.
While this seemed on the surface to be a win for workers’ rights, the crackdown did not come with protections for the migrant workers employed by these agencies. At least 39,000 people have lost their sponsorship as a result. All of these workers are in the UK on the Health and Care Worker visa, which ties their immigration status to their continued employment by the agencies that hired them. Now that those agencies are no longer allowed to sponsor them, these displaced workers will have their visas curtailed unless they find new sponsors.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/visa-reform-is-the-minimum-owed-to-exploited-care-workers/
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