A new report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that some migrants are working under threatening and inhumane conditions for little or no pay, in parts of the UK food industry.

Although incidents of forced labour in the food industry have been reported from time to time, this new report – “Experiences of forced labour in the UK food industry” – is one of the largest studies revealing what migrant workers actually experience when they are severely exploited at work.

Some migrants had paid fees to agents to get to the UK and obtain work. Isolated, unaware of their rights and trapped in debt, researchers found cases of migrants being forced to share cramped accommodation (sometimes with strangers), subject to threats and racist bullying, and vulnerable to scams such as ‘under-work’ – the practice of recruiting too many workers and then giving them just enough work to meet their debt to the gangmaster.

One worker recalled how she had lost her job when she told the agency she was pregnant: “I … spoke to him and he promised me that he will look for easy work for me. He gave me my last salary … I asked them directly: ‘What shall I do now? Have you dismissed me? Do I need to look for another job?’… He replied: ‘No, no. Everything is fine. I am looking for another job for you’. They just could not tell me that they are dismissing me.” (Zinaida, woman, 24, Lithuanian)

Another described the impact on her mental health, “I was hating the alarm clock. When it was ringing … and knew I had to go back there, I felt like the sky was falling on me, but I had … no other choice. I needed money I needed work … I didn’t care anymore, I was at the point when you’d rather kill me than go back there … I lost weight, I was … sad all the time, tense and day-by-day you are being treated like the least nothing on earth.” (Adriana, woman, 30, Romanian)

Read more at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation