Doubling the leave to remain timeframe for care workers to 10 years is “cruel and unconscionable”, according to workers rights campaigners who back a Home Office minister’s proposal to exclude the cohort from the government’s immigration plans.
Mike Tapp is at the centre of a political row with the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, after writing an article in which he said migrant care workers should be excluded from plans to retrospectively change the length of time people must work before they can permanently settle in the UK.
Mahmood has called on Keir Starmer to sack him, and restricted Tapp’s access to sensitive documents and meetings in response, with sources suggesting he had leaked a policy the department was working on.
Migrant care workers and workers rights’ experts said Tapp’s proposal was the right thing to do, and that the current plan risked further forcing workers into exploitation, which is rife in the sector.
Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, the chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: “All of these people migrated legally and they answered a call that came from the UK, so to throw them under the bus now is cruel and it’s unconscionable, especially by a Labour government.”
She said Tapp’s proposals should be taken onboard, adding that “if Andy Burnham is starting with a clean slate, then let it be the first thing that he drops”.
Gavin Edwards, the head of social care at Unison, said the proposed change to leave to remain was a “slap in the face” for care workers who had “come to this country, propped up a vital public service and are doing difficult work, only to be told the rules will be changed halfway through the game to qualify for leave to remain”.
Edwards said the power imbalance created by the visa sponsorship system, which ties workers to a specific employer until they are granted indefinite leave to remain, meant abuse was rife. “The level of exploitation and workplace abuse that this particular group of workers has experienced has been off the scale,” he said. “It’s astounding.”
Migrant care workers close to the current five-year goal for securing settled status said they were devastated by the plans. Many said they had been subjected to abuse and exploitation.
Josephine*, who came to the UK from Zimbabwe in 2022, said she was forced to live in a wooden shed in her employer’s garden and use a bucket as a toilet at night. She said she had no running water, and was given a bucket of water to shower.
“[My employer] said to me: ‘I took you from the pits of poverty, this is a stepping stone,’” Josephine said. “I was shocked because it felt inhuman.
“The first three months were so horrendous. My mental health took a toll. I felt so suicidal.”
She had sold her most valuable possessions and taken loans from family members to make the journey to the UK, meaning the stakes were high. She did not want to risk speaking out, losing her job and having to return to her home country empty-handed.
“I couldn’t stop thinking of my children,” she said. “I wasn’t able to send money back home to them because she wasn’t paying me enough. You think: what can I do? I don’t have a penny and they could send me back.”
Now she is 10 months away from being granted indefinite leave to remain – which would free her from the risk of exploitation – but is scared she may have to wait another five years if the government’s proposals go ahead.
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“I keep thinking: have I made a terrible decision? Maybe I should have stayed,” she said. “But I’ve invested so much. I love my job very much. I would never trade it for anything because it gives me so much satisfaction and I feel like I’m giving back a lot.
“I’m constantly thinking: how do I improve myself? How am I going to contribute to my community? I’ve almost completed my level five NVQ in health and social care management. I don’t have much else to give. And I still don’t know my future.”
Carla*, from Nigeria, became a care worker on the sponsorship visa scheme in 2023 and said she had worked a whole month without a single day off.
“I leave my home as early as 5am in the morning because my first client is at 5.50am. And I’m not back to the house until around 10pm at night,” she said. “I have a teenage daughter but I never get to see her, she’s always in bed when I’m at home.
“Sometimes my legs are shaking because I’m so tired. But I have to keep quiet when I’m overwhelmed because I want to remain in the country.”
Carla said the government’s plans to change the settlement requirement from five to 10 years was “inhumane”. She is due to qualify in 2028.
“I feel trapped because my visa has tied me to that particular employer for the next five years,” she said. “Do they know an employer will constantly threaten our future and that of our children just because they gave us jobs? I can’t do that for another 10 years.”
*Names have been changed
