Labour loses track of migrants after their work visas expire

The Home Office is under fire for not knowing whether foreign workers stayed in the UK when their visas expired, are continuing to work here illegally or have been dragged into the horrors of modern slavery. A scathing report into the skilled worker visa scheme warns there is “widespread evidence of workers suffering debt bondage, working excessive hours and exploitative conditions”.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chairman of the powerful public accounts committee, blasted the Government for not carrying out basic checks. Many more people than expected have used the scheme. Instead of issuing 360,000 skilled worker visas to overseas applicants – including dependents – in the three years to April 2024, 931,000 were granted.

The scheme was expanded in 2022 to help the pandemic-battered social care sector but the cross-party group of MPs is alarmed at the potential for abuse.

Sir Geoffrey said: “Our report finds that this speed came at a painfully high cost – to the safety of workers from the depredations of labour market abuses, and the integrity of the system from people not following the rules. There has long been mounting evidence of serious issues with the system, laid bare once again in our inquiry.

“And yet basic information, such as how many people on skilled worker visas have been modern slavery victims, and whether people leave the UK after their visas expire, seems to still not have been gathered by government.”

Migrants are particularly “vulnerable to exploitation”, the report warns, because a person’s right to live in Britain is dependent on their employer under the scheme’s sponsorship model.

More than 470 sponsor licences in the care sector were revoked between July 2022 and December 2024 in an attempt to crack down on abuse.

The report states: “The cross-government response to tackling the exploitation of migrant workers has been insufficient and, within this, the Home Office’s response has been slow and ineffective.”

The committee found the Home Office “does not know what proportion of people return to their home country after their visa has expired, and how many may be working illegally in the United Kingdom”.

Legislation to stop care workers being recruited from abroad has been introduced in Parliament.

Adis Sehic of the Work Rights Centre charity said: “This report is yet more damning evidence that the principle of sponsorship, which ties migrant workers in the UK to their employer, is inherently unsafe for workers and, in our view, breaches their human rights.”

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson said his party would “deport those who are in the UK illegally”.

He said: “Our soft-touch immigration policies have allowed migrants to exploit the system—a system that benefits everyone except hardworking Britons, costs the country billions each year, and worsens the housing crisis and strain on our public services.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “We cannot keep papering over workforce gaps by importing cheap labour while nine million people in Britain are economically inactive. And because long-term settlement must be earned, not handed out, we will double the residency requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five years to 10.

“Immigration must work for Britain, not the other way round.”

The Home Office has been invited to comment.