In October 2023, the operator of the UK’s Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, Unseen, released a report alleging the helpline has seen a significant rise in the number of cases indicating abuse and forced labour in the care sector throughout 2022 and into 2023.

The report highlights how the care sector is susceptible to worker exploitation due its reliance on temporary migrant labour. Labour shortages, due to difficulties retaining staff and demographic change, have led to a focused recruitment of cheaper labour from non-EU countries, without addressing concerns about low pay of care workers.

Key findings of the report include:

• 606% increase in the number of modern slavery cases in the care sector from 2021 to 2022.
• 712 potential victims of modern slavery in the care sector in 2022.
• 106 cases of modern slavery in the care sector in 2022, making up 10% of all cases raised through the helpline that year.
• £11,800 is the average amount of debt reported by people who contacted the Helpline to pay for recruitment, visa, and travel costs.

The majority of the victims in 2022 and 2023 were from Indian, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria. Female migrant workers were the most prevalent victims across most nationalities.

While the report includes allegations of abuse across several human rights indicators, debt bondage appears a particular issue, with many paying thousands of pounds to third-part facilitators in the country of origin or directly to their employers, leading to have large debts. In some cases, debt amounted to as much as £25,000.

The report outlines themes that emerge in relation to keeping workers in modern slavery situations, the most dominant being financial control, such as by withholding wages, not paying the minimum wage, debt bondage, and charging excessive fees for breaking contracts.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including ensuring sufficient information about workers’ rights and sponsorship transfer is provided to migrants using the Health and Care visa; introducing additional checks at visa-issuing centres in origin states to tackle recruitment fee payment; implementing stricter guidelines around repayment clauses and exit fees; establishing a clear channel to the relevant government department for reporting on employers who charge workers for sponsorship certificates; increasing care sector salaries; furthering modern slavery training for inspectors and local authority staff; and providing government support to migrants whose sponsor’s license has been revoked.