A Nepalese farm worker who came to the UK to pick berries is suing her ex-employer for unpaid wages and discrimination in what campaigners say is the first case of its kind.

Sapana Pangeni, 31, said in a witness statement Wednesday that her hands bled because she was not given gloves and was forced to live in an unheated caravan in winter 2022 with five men at a farm near Reading in Southern England.

Pangeni arrived to the UK on a seasonal visa granted to support farmers who are struggling to recruit enough local laborers to carry out essential field work, which often involves long hours and low pay. The work has become less attractive to Europeans while farm workers from Russia and Ukraine stay away because of the war between their countries. The UK has approved granting about 45,000 seasonal visas in 2025. In 2023, workers came from as far away as Nepal, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

Pangeni said her treatment amounts to discrimination as migrant workers find it harder to enforce their rights. Her case is the first to be brought to the employment tribunal by a laborer on the seasonal worker policy…