Written evidence submitted by Focus on Labour Exploitation (RTS3066)

About FLEX and why we are responding:

Founded in 2013, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) is a charity which works to end labour exploitation in the UK, including forced labour and trafficking.

We do this by delivering a leading programme of policy analysis and research which exposes how labour exploitation occurs within sectors such as  seasonal agricultural work; care work and domestic work; hospitality, including the takeaway trade, and outsourced sectors such as cleaning.

We are responding to this HASC inquiry as we believe our learnings can assist the work of the Committee in its aim  to evaluate the evidence for, and potential impact of, the Government’s planned changes to eligibility for Indefinite Leave to Remain and inform and feed into the new policy as it is being developed.

Summary:

A recurring finding of our research and analysis is that labour exploitation is facilitated by visa restrictions and immigration rules which limit migrant workers’ Leave to Remain and opportunities for permanent settlement; and correspondingly, their ability to access  a range of rights, including employment rights. We believe that the Government’s package of reforms across labour migration and asylum and refugee policy will make much needed migrant workers even more vulnerable to labour exploitation, with the prospect of undermining the forthcoming Employment Rights Act and the Government’s Mission level intention to improve workers’ rights.

What is the likely impact of longer routes and stricter requirements for settlement on migrant households already in the UK?

1. The overall effect of various immigration and asylum reforms and proposals impacting Leave to Remain and settlement is to increase the pool of workers in temporary and precarious jobs in the UK who are the most vulnerable to labour exploitation. As an organisation concerned with labour exploitation this is the impact our comments are focussed on. Both existing and new migrant households will be impacted by the extensive changes already implemented and those proposed as follows:
2. In May 2025, the Government published its Immigration White Paper including a proposal to extend the standard qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain. from five years to ten. The Government has subsequently issued proposed changes to routes to settlement for asylum seekers and refugees in Restoring Order and Control and proposed changes to routes to settlement for a range of migrant groups including migrant workers in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement. The overall effect of this is that most groups are looking at “a baseline” of ten years or more of temporary status in the UK in order to qualify for settlement.
3. The proposed changes will follow reforms the Government has already implemented in respect of labour migration, including lifting the qualifications threshold for Skilled Workers to Related Qualifications Framework (RFQ) Level 6, (equivalent to a UK Bachelors degree); increasing salary thresholds for most occupations; closure of the Health and Care Visa route to Senior Care and Care Workers;  commissioning the Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future changes to salary requirements and a Temporary Shortage List (TSL) for medium skilled occupations (RFQ 3-5); and creating a Labour Advisory Committee to advise on a labourforce strategy. In February 2025 the government announced that the operation of the horticultural Seasonal Worker Scheme, a six-month long visa with no route to settlement, would be extended for a further five years.
4. Impact on Skilled and Temporary Shortage List workers: While there are transitional arrangements for those sponsored before 22 July 2025, employer sponsorship of occupations equivalent to RFQ 3-5  will no longer be possible unless they appear on the TSL, with implications for migrant workers in skilled and lower skilled roles. It is noteworthy that future migrant social care workers will  have no viable route to working and settling in the UK; those who entered between 2022 and 2024 and might have been due to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain from 2027 now face a baseline of 15 years’ legal residence in the UK before being able to apply for settlement.
5. Those migrant workers with Skilled Worker status will need to continue working for longer under an employer-sponsored visa - a likely baseline of ten years - before being eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain, according to the latest proposals - although additional criteria apply, as for all routes. Exceptionally, the retention of the existing five-year pathway is proposed for doctors and nurses or other skilled public service frontline workers.
6. Roles previously classified as Skilled Worker but assessed at the RFQ 3-5 Medium Skills level could be relegated to the TSL with  more restricted rights attached than for Skilled Workers (unless the visa holder was already in the UK before 22 July 2025 and covered by existing transitional arrangements).
7. The Government has yet to fully clarify the rights of migrant workers on the TSL. While the Migration Advisory Committee has proposed that it would be appropriate to set TSL visa time limits at between three and five years, it has made no proposal on whether the visas should be renewable and the Government has not yet responded. The TSL does not appear to offer a direct route to settlement and the July 2025 immigration rules already preclude their dependents  joining them.
8. The Home Office’s “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement “ proposes that those workers who are lower paid and were already in the country by 2024 should be set a baseline of 15 years before they can apply for settlement, with any migrants on benefits potentially facing a baseline of 20 years before they can apply.
9. It is possible that the Government could adopt the  MAC recommendation that migrant workers on the TSL should be able to switch to the Skilled Worker visa if they can evidence progression in qualifications and training which would then enable them to bring dependents and provide a route to settlement.
10. However the general picture is that any migrant worker here on a  TSL visa will face high uncertainty as by its very nature the TSL is predicated on meeting temporary labour demand. According to the MAC “A full review of the TSL every three years would assess whether TSL access is revoked or extended for each occupation on the list or whether additional RQF 3-5 occupations should be added.”
11. Settlement and Refugees and Asylum Seekers The above changes need to be understood in tandem with the Government’s proposed limitations on the leave  to remain and settlement rights granted to refugees. In future refugees will  receive only 30 months’ leave to remain, which can only be renewed if they are still considered in need of protection: otherwise they may be removed.
12. There will  be no path to indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in the country, an increase on the current five years. They may however be able to shorten this path and “earn” settlement sooner if they switch to a new in-country Protection Work and Study route. A person granted protection will be eligible to apply to move into this route if they obtain employment or commence study at an appropriate level and pay a fee.
13. FLEX is concerned that refugees and asylum seekers who find themselves without support will be particularly vulnerable to trafficking and the worst forms of labour abuse including forced labour and modern slavery. Keeping refugees on short grants of only 30 months leave to remain for 20 years will make it harder for people with this status to find work, and in turn to challenge poor conditions of employment for fear of losing their job, particularly when there is little time remaining on their visa. The pressure to remain in work, even if conditions are poor, will be compounded by any increase to the qualifying period for settlement which results from accessing public funds.
14. Overall impact of the reforms: In FLEX’s view the above package of reforms is a virtual “green light” to unscrupulous employers to exploit these groups of workers, flying in the face of the Government’s Mission-level intentions to improve workers’ rights through the upcoming Employment Rights Act; and tackle inequalities.
15. Research finds that temporary work in combination with a visa that ties the workers to the employers, limited leave to remain and no path to settlement promotes labour exploitation in the UK. For example, FLEX has repeatedly raised the egregious treatment of workers on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme Visa , including debt bondage, unsafe living and working conditions, underpayment, difficulties in accessing healthcare or redress, as well as difficulties leaving poor or abusive situations, including sexual harassment and abuse. These are workers who are putting fruit and vegetables in our supermarkets and healthy plant-based food on our plates.
16. Migrant workers are highly represented not only in seasonal agricultural work but also in temporary and zero hours work in cleaning, domestic work, and hospitality with frequent abuses of basic employment rights. Cross-sectional analysis suggests that the demographic of these workforces  is also predominantly female and from minoritised communities.These  labour pools  which ensure the cleaning of our public buildings and offices, care and support in the home, and access to food and accommodation are drawn from the most powerless groups of workers with impacts for gender and racial equality.
17. The toil of labour exploitation is being disproportionately borne by women and minoritised migrant communities; and there is every reason to believe that introducing more precariousness into leave to remain and rights to settlement will increase the scale and depth of exploitation faced by migrant communities, women and people of colour, and expand the pool of labour vulnerable to exploitation more generally.
18. We are particularly concerned that this pool of exploitable labour will be swelled by asylum seekers deemed to be in no need of core protection and denied the proposed discretionary support. The Government has said it will not support those who have the right to work and could therefore support themselves. This would include those who enter the country on a work or student visa with permission to work before claiming asylum, or those granted permission to work where their claim has been outstanding for more than twelve months.
19. Impact within labour enforcement context: The reforms are a  recipe for baking in exploitation of a section of the UK labour force into the country’s economic model; and  will raise a challenge to the new Fair Work Agency given the already poor funding of labour inspection. The UK falls well below the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommended target of one inspector for every 10,000 workers (Resolution Foundation, 2023). The TUC (2020) has pointed out that the UK needs almost another 1800 labour market inspectors to meet ILO standards. Consequently the labour inspection regime is already highly reactive, relying on worker complaints or other intelligence. As migrant workers are highly unlikely to jeopardise a work visa tied to a particular employer and/or may fear deportation, particularly if undocumented,  they are highly unlikely to make such reports. The large number of Immigration Enforcement raids on workplaces are another deterrent to proactive reporting of exploitation by workers.
20. The prioritisation of immigration over labour enforcement, lack of secure reporting pathways and limitations in the scope and resourcing of the Gangmasters and Labour Authority also  explain the relatively low levels of action against perpetrators of the worst forms of abuse, trafficking and forced labour.
21. As the FWA will only enforce a limited set of standards, like the minimum wage and statutory sick pay, a situation will continue where most workers are expected to enforce their own rights for example on non-payment of holiday pay, discrimination, unfair dismissal and violations of working time regulations. However, only a small minority of people pursue their case to an employment tribunal and groups like migrant workers are very unlikely to do so, for the reasons given above. In  addition time limits on visas may preclude them going to tribunal particularly in view of the extremely long delays in cases being heard by ET.
22. The TUC has repeatedly raised the concern that restrictive migrant workers visas empower unscrupulous bosses to exploit them to the disadvantage of other workers. FLEX believes that increasing the restrictiveness of visa conditions risks undoing the gains of the forthcoming Employment Rights Act and engaging more of the UK population in good quality, well paid jobs.
23. Conclusion and recommendations: Migrant workers are doing jobs that are needed by the UK economy, including those in low paid work and on the Temporary Shortage List. They should receive equal protection in employment through equal visa conditions and settlement rights, with the ability to switch employers and use secure reporting pathways that protect them from immigration enforcement if they are seeking redress against breaches of employment rights and labour exploitation. Asylum seekers and refugees should be able to work legally  and be similarly protected.  The new employment enforcement regime in the UK must be adequately resourced and be able to take action to protect workers, whatever their visa or settlement rights; and without interference by immigration enforcement.

Dec 2025