Migrant workers face 'shocking abuse' by care operators: UK

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
10 Jul 2023 10:48

According to a report by The Guardian, migrant health workers face exploitative working conditions.

A medical professional talks to a patient, at Stratsburg University Hospital, on January 13, 2022 (AP)

The Guardian reported that care operators are facing accusations of "shocking abuse" toward migrant workers in the UK, who are allegedly being subjected to exploitative practices, such as exorbitant recruitment fees, substandard accommodation, and grueling work hours.

The allegations have prompted Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the healthcare trade union, to write a letter to the social care minister, Helen Whately, urging government intervention and requesting an urgent meeting to address what she deems "a crisis".

“The government must stop unscrupulous care employers from luring overseas workers under false pretences, only to then exploit and harass them,” said McAnea.

“These practices have no place in a modern society. Migrant staff deserve nothing but respect and dignity for coming to look after those who need care the most. This makes the case for why a national care service, that mirrors the NHS, is needed so urgently.”

The demand for social care workers in the UK has led to an influx of approximately 58,000 individuals, predominantly from countries like the Philippines, who have sought to fill around 165,000 vacant positions in the sector.

However, Unison claims to have received an increasing number of reports concerning care workers facing dire working conditions, including being required to be on call at all times, enduring 19-hour shifts without breaks, having wages withheld, and being forced to pay significant sums to recruitment agencies, with a portion of those fees being shared with the care operators.

Back in April, a survey conducted on racism in the UK revealed that one in three people of "ethnic and religious" background has experienced racially motivated physical or verbal abuse.

Conducted with the participation of 14,000 people from 21 ethnic groups, the study found that levels of racial abuse in the country were "strikingly high".

The two-year-long study was published this week in a book called Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a Time of Crisis.

Looking into the various sorts of racial discrimination that take place at work and public spaces, Professor Nissa Finney, who conducted the study and teaches human geography at St Andrew's University, said the study proved racism was "part of daily lives."

"The UK is immeasurably far from being a racially just society. The kinds of inequality we see in our study would not be there if we had a really just society," Finney told The Guardian.

One of the results indicated that more than a quarter of those from minorities had experienced racial insults with nearly one in three experiencing racial insults in a public space.