Meera Stephen came to Britain with a big suitcase and even bigger dreams. The 27-year-old had left Kerala in south India to work at a care home in Manchester, one of thousands of migrant workers to come after a government recruitment drive to fill more than 100,000 vacancies in social care.
The job would pay £10 an hour – just above minimum wage. But it came at a price. In exchange for securing her employment, she would pay a recruitment agent 1.3m rupees – about £13,700.
Stephen, whose name has been changed to protect her, is one of a growing number of migrant workers being charged to work in Britain’s care sector.
Requiring workers to pay recruitment fees for finding or trying to find them jobs is illegal in the UK and breaches international labour standards.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/18/migrant-care-workers-uk-debt
