In the shadows of Britain's supermarket shelves, high street fashion rails, and construction sites lies an uncomfortable truth: the UK economy is propped up by a global system of migrant worker exploitation. In 2025 alone, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) recorded 747 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers worldwide, spanning nearly every key sector and region.
These were not isolated incidents but symptoms of a business model that channels immense profits to multinationals headquartered in wealthy nations while extracting labour from the world's most marginalised people.
Yet the UK cannot afford to view this as a distant problem. The evidence is clear: migrant worker exploitation is happening here, now, on British soil. From farms in the Home Counties to factories in the Midlands, a pattern of abuse is enabled by weak laws, inadequate enforcement, and a political unwillingness to confront the structural flaws that make exploitation inevitable. The following analysis draws on UK-specific data to expose the scale of the crisis and to demand the urgent reforms workers deserve.
The Seasonal Worker Scheme: A Blueprint for Exploitation
At the heart of the UK's agricultural labour market is the Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS). On the surface, it provides the workers needed to pick fruit and vegetables. In practice, it creates a captive workforce with few rights and no power to resist abuse.
Critics argue that exploitation is not a bug but a feature of the scheme's design. Workers are tied to a single employer sponsor. If they complain about withheld wages, unsafe housing, or racist abuse, they risk losing not only their job but their legal right to remain in the country. "It is unacceptable that too many face withheld pay, unsafe conditions and abuse – and feel they cannot speak out because their job, income and immigration status all depend on a single recruiter," said Eleanor Lyons, the independent anti-slavery commissioner.
The evidence of abuse is overwhelming. Workers have reported amassing debts of up to £5,000 just to pay for visas and travel. They have described being forced to work 12-hour days, six days a week, "like robots". A culture of bullying and racism pervades many farms: one worker from Central Asia reported that he and his colleagues were routinely made to clean for hours after their shifts had finished while other workers simply clocked off. Another stated: "We were screamed at all the time. They treated us like animals".
Despite years of campaigning by trade unions and NGOs, the government has refused to implement key reforms. In July 2024, its own Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published an in-depth review of the visa scheme. A central recommendation was the guarantee of at least two months' pay to help prevent workers falling into debt. The government rejected it. It accepted the recommendation of tighter enforcement "in principle" – but then ignored the substance of the enforcement suggestions, pointing instead to the as-yet-untested Fair Work Agency.
This is a pattern. In February 2025, the government extended the Seasonal Worker Scheme for a further five years without implementing the safeguards advocates have repeatedly demanded. The scheme remains a "hostile environment" for the very workers who keep Britain fed.
Leicester's Garment Industry: From Scandal to Collapse
If agriculture reveals the structural flaws of state-sponsored schemes, Leicester's garment industry shows what happens when brands look the other way. For years, the city was synonymous with fast fashion's dirty secret: grim labour conditions, pay below the minimum wage, and "dark factories" serving high street brands.
Then came the brand exodus. Following a series of scandals, the vast majority of high street and fast fashion brands that once sourced their clothes in Leicester shifted their supply chains to North Africa and South Asia. According to industry data, the number of textile and apparel factories in Leicester collapsed from 1,500 in 2017 to just 96 in 2025 – a 94% decline. A staggering 95% of UK clothes companies have either trimmed or completely eliminated clothes manufacturing in the UK. Thousands of fashion workers, many of them migrant women, lost their jobs. Factories lie empty, machines gathering dust.
The irony is brutal. Brands abandoned Leicester not because they were forced to pay decent wages or improve conditions, but because the reputational risk became too great. They simply moved production to countries with even weaker labour protections and lower costs, leaving the workers they exploited to face unemployment and poverty. As one garment worker explained: "My boss says the brands are not committed to orders. If these brands are selling in the UK, which they are, then they should commit to the UK. We want decent work and decent pay. We want the factories to stay open. Being a migrant, this is the only work I know, and I am dependent on it".
The gendered dimension of this exploitation is stark. A 2025 report documented how women migrant garment workers in Leicester experienced gender-based violence, both at work and in the home, linked to precarious and low-paid jobs. These stories show how women are exploited by the choices brands make, with precarious work forming the bedrock of fashion supply chains that make millions for top executives but little for the women who make the clothes.
Construction and the Expanding Enforcement Net
Meanwhile, the construction sector – long recognised as high risk for illegal working due to its reliance on subcontracting, complex supply chains, and short-term labour – is facing an unprecedented enforcement crackdown. Between January and September 2025, there were 206 immigration enforcement visits to construction premises, resulting in 477 arrests – a dramatic increase compared to 167 arrests from 119 raids throughout the whole of 2024. Civil penalties totalling £4.9 million were issued to construction companies.
While enforcement against illegal working is necessary, it fails to address the underlying power imbalance that makes migrant workers vulnerable in the first place. The focus on "compliance" and "raids" targets the symptoms, not the cause. Worse, it often punishes the workers themselves – through arrest and deportation – while the employers who created the conditions for exploitation escape with fines that are often treated as a cost of doing business.
In early 2026, a massive multi-agency enforcement operation in Newcastle uncovered severe labour law violations across approximately 12 garment manufacturers, including the employment of dozens of undocumented workers and hazardous factory conditions posing immediate fire risks. The fallout was immediate for major retail chains, as investigators discovered large quantities of finished apparel labelled for high-profile brands. Yet these brands have historically relied on third-party audits that are increasingly shown to be easily circumvented through "staged compliance" fronts.
The Legal Landscape: A Decade of Failure
The UK's primary legislative tool for combating modern slavery in supply chains is the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015. When it came into force, it was hailed as a landmark. A decade on, there is widespread recognition that the UK has fallen behind.
The MSA requires large companies to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. But it does not require those companies to conduct human rights due diligence, and there are no penalties for non-compliance. The government has the power to seek an injunction to compel publication of a statement, but there are no recorded instances of this power ever being exercised.
In July 2025, the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights issued a damning report, finding that the current domestic regulatory framework is "inadequate" to address forced labour in supply chains. The Committee called for new legislation to be introduced within one year, including: a ban on the import or sale of goods linked to forced labour; mandatory human rights due diligence duties for businesses; and a civil liability cause of action against companies that fail to prevent forced labour in their supply chains.
The Corporate Justice Coalition "strongly welcomed" the report's findings, but the government's response has been tepid at best. While a Responsible Business Conduct Review is underway, there is little sign of the urgent legislative action required.
The Path to Reform
The evidence is clear: the UK's current approach is failing migrant workers. What is needed is a fundamental shift in power – away from exploitative employers and towards the workers who generate the wealth.
1. Decouple immigration status from employment. The sponsorship system is akin to bonded labour, handing employers the power to exploit migrants who know it will be very hard for them to leave. Workers must be given the right to change employers without losing their visa status.
2. Mandate human rights due diligence. The government must act on the Joint Committee on Human Rights' recommendations. Large companies should be legally required to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remedy human rights abuses in their supply chains, with meaningful penalties for failure.
3. Empower the Fair Work Agency. The new Fair Work Agency, operational from April 2026, must be given the resources, powers, and independence to proactively investigate abuses in high-risk sectors. A "firewall" must be established between labour enforcement and immigration enforcement to ensure workers can report abuse without fear of deportation.
4. Ratify and implement ILO Convention 190. The UK should ratify the International Labour Organization's Convention on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, and ensure its provisions are fully implemented in UK law and practice.
5. Support collective bargaining and unionisation. Trade unions are the most effective bulwark against exploitation. The Employment Rights Bill's measures to simplify union recognition and repeal anti-strike legislation are welcome, but they must be fully implemented without delay or dilution.
Conclusion
The 747 cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally in 2025 are a stain on the conscience of the business world. But for the UK, the problem is not "over there." It is in the fields that produce our food, the factories that once clothed us, and the construction sites building our cities. It is a problem of our own making, enabled by laws that prioritise corporate flexibility over worker dignity and by a political class that refuses to confront the structural flaws in our labour market.
Just transitions cannot be built on migrant abuse. Companies must respect migrant workers' rights, guarantee fair negotiations, and ensure business models are built not on exploitation but shared prosperity. There is no time to lose. The climate crisis, growing inequality, and escalating conflict are increasing the vulnerability of migrants worldwide. At the same time, protections are being eroded through hostile migration policies and the dismantling of union protections.
The workers who feed us, clothe us, and build our homes deserve better. It is time for the UK to move beyond warm words and voluntary reporting to binding legal obligations and genuine accountability. The evidence is clear. The reforms are known. What is missing is the political will. That must change – now.
Source: Business and Human Rights Centre