At Right to Remain, we have been expanding and developing our legal education resources for people experiencing work exploitation. We recently published a brand new Toolkit page on Work Exploitation and Migrant Workers’ Rights, which you can read here. 

As a campaigning organisation, we believe that we cannot change the racist-by-design immigration system unless we understand it first. 

So, as well as providing online legal education resources on this topic, we also want to bring together people who are experiencing work exploitation, and build solidarity around this issue. This is why we developed a workshop on this topic, which we piloted at the Ella Baker New Organising Conference in July.

We want to highlight the new Justice for Migrant Workers Campaign, launched with the support of Migrants’ Rights Network and Migrants At Work. 

What is the Justice for Migrant Workers Campaign? 

The Justice For Sponsored Workers campaign is a migrant-led campaign which demands the end of sponsored slavery.

Sponsored slavery is the result of the UK’s immigration system, which ties a person’s visa to their employer. The visa sponsorship system means that migrant workers are reliant on their employer as their visa ‘sponsor’. 

As we explain in the Toolkit, this means: 

If you want to leave your employer who is also your visa sponsor, you have just 60 days to find a new employer and pay another set of fees so that you can continue working in the UK legally. Equally, if you are dismissed from a job, your sponsor must inform the Home Office and you have only 60 days to get a new job. If your sponsor loses their licence, your visa will also be affected. 

This is incredibly difficult. It creates dependency (reliance) on sponsors (employers). Some employers might threaten to cancel your sponsorship or your colleagues’ sponsorship if you complain about working conditions. As pointed out by this report by the Work Rights Centre, this ‘entrenches the power imbalance between migrant workers and employers’.

Another reason that migrant workers are trapped in exploitative work situations is due to debt and destitution. Many workers will pay huge sums in recruitment fees, meaning they are left with large debts to repay. They are also subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) visa condition, which means that they are left without a safety net as they are not eligible to apply for mainstream benefits. 

This campaign also calls for the introduction of safe reporting mechanisms – so that workers who have experienced exploitation and unsafe working conditions can report employers safely, without risking their immigration status and right to stay in the UK. 

To read more about the campaign, click here.

How can I join the campaign?

If you are a sponsored worker and would like to join the campaign, tell your story, or find out more, you can fill out this form here. Your details will not be shared beyond Migrants’ Rights Network and Migrants At Work. 

You can also share the campaign’s Instagram and Twitter posts with your networks.